Allen Drury‘s Advise and Consent, the quintessential big book about Washington power players, turns 50.
Lorrie Moore: “I don’t feel I’m a natural writer. I feel every paragraph I write stinks. But I’m a pretty good editor. I’m not that fluid in getting the sentences out right the first time. There are times when you lose confidence. There are scenes that are hard to write. So I make changes. I am still making changes.”
Audrey Niffenegger recalls her early days in Chicago’s art scene.
Henry Louis Gates recently handed out the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, which are given to best books about race in the past year. Among the winners is Louise Erdrich, for The Plague of Doves.
New York magazine talks with Jonathan Ames. “Bored to Death,” the lead story in his new collection, The Double Life Is Twice as Good, is a genius riff on noir themes matched with Ames’ traditional acts of self-flagellation.
Serpent’s Tail Press (which has published some of my favorite David Goodis noirs) is launching a classics series. It’s an interesting take on classics: Among the first batch of reprints are Lionel Shriver‘s We Need to Talk About Kevin and George Pelecanos‘ Shoedog.
An excerpt from Raymond Carver‘s “Beginners,” included in Library of America’s new Carver collection.
Carver’s widow, Tess Gallagher, has a new story collection, The Man From Kinvara.
A chat with the head of the Kurt Vonnegut Society in San Francisco.
Tortilla Flat is a good name for a John Steinbeck novel, but a bad name for a Southern California sports bar.
And a Thomas Pynchon scholar picks precisely the wrong guy with whom to cop attitude about television.
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