Christopher James wins National Poetry Competition

By Rachel Dovey at 9:54 AM on March 31, 2009

Poet Christopher James won this year's National Poetry Competition for his piece "Farewell to the Earth." Judges included Brian Pattern, Frieda Hughes and Jack Mapanje....  read more

Jon Hamm joins James Franco in Howl

By Jeffrey Bloomer at 10:00 AM on March 27, 2009

Jon Hamm, the eminently likeable actor who is the face of Mad Men, has gone in the past couple of years from relative obscurity to one of the most sought-after talents around. After his side gigs as Tina Fey’s beau on 30 Rock and as a faux Lex Luther, he’s signed on for a supporting part in Howl, the indie drama about the obscenity trial of Allen Ginsberg (to be played by James Franco). ...  read more

Anthony Hopkins to play Ernest Hemingway

By Jeffrey Bloomer at 10:36 AM on March 25, 2009

Ernest Hemingway’s fiction is famously difficult to develop for the screen, but perhaps his life will translate a little easier. ...  read more

Wells Tower

By Justin Taylor at 4:30 PM on March 16, 2009

We begin with a story of a man waking on the floor of a beach house, saltine crumbs...  read more

Roberto Bolaño still cranking out novels after death

By Matt Goodlett at 3:04 PM on March 12, 2009

Not to be outdone by David Foster Wallace or Tupac Shakur, Roberto Bolaño may have some new literary work coming out soon, despite the fact that he's been deceased since 2003....  read more

Rare Harry Potter book fetches $19,000 at auction

By Rachel Dovey at 11:23 AM on March 11, 2009

We've left the muggle world without Harry Potter news for far too long. Lest our readership leave us for wizard sources like The Daily Prophet, we dug around like Rita Skeeter (more ethically, of course) and came up with some juicy new Potter tidbits....  read more

Thomas Cahill

By Jason Killingsworth at 1:40 PM on March 9, 2009

My friend Derek knows a guy who lost his wife to a bolt of lightning...  read more

James Franco preps short-story collection

By Matt Goodlett at 3:12 PM on March 6, 2009

Actor James Franco has reportedly sold a short-story collection to publishing giant Simon Schuster's imprint Scribner....  read more

Catching Up With...Watchmen illustrator Dave Gibbons

By Matt Goodlett at 8:00 AM on March 5, 2009

There's a tiny detail in one of the scenes from Watchmen that's indicative of the graphic novel's larger complexity...  read more

Alex Wheatle

By Ravi Howard at 2:30 PM on March 4, 2009

While the term generally describes the Southern outposts of...  read more

Posthumous David Foster Wallace story published in New Yorker, book promised for 2010

By Sean Gandert at 1:00 PM on March 3, 2009

Following months of speculation as to what would happen...  read more

Jeffrey Renard Allen

By Charles McNair at 3:57 PM on March 2, 2009

If you haven’t yet heard of Allen, you will...  read more

Soundscreen Design prepping 7" design book

By Henry Freedland at 2:58 PM on February 26, 2009

Seven-inch records are where things begin. For independent labels and bands without cashflow to speak of, it's how sound gets moving from amps to earphones. Which is exactly why they merit acclaim so badly: They've long been the handshake drugs of punk and hardcore scenes, and even eventual powerhouses like Seattle's Sub Pop would be nowhere without a debut 7" like Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick"....  read more

Silver Jews' David Berman plans cartoon compilation

By Michael Saba at 4:37 PM on February 12, 2009

Now, why would David Berman think that people who listen to indie rock want to read comics? Drag City's website recently announced that they'll be publishing The Portable February, a comic compilation book from the ex-lead silver semite....  read more

I Love You, Beth Cooper gets movie to go with soundtrack

By Matt Goodlett at 11:53 AM on February 11, 2009

Larry Doyle, who has written for The Simpsons and Beavis and Butthead, is having his first novel, I Love You, Beth Cooper, made into a movie....  read more

Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton, with Erin Tomeo

By Andrea Lea at 11:07 AM on February 11, 2009

The reader who trudges...  read more

Bill Ayers set to publish graphic-novel memoir

By Michael Saba at 2:11 PM on February 10, 2009

Bill Ayers' name became common coin during the 2008 presidential election, with Barack Obama's campaign railroaded into answering questions on his tenuous connection to the radical leftist-turned-university professor. The grim specter of this TERRORIST MENTOR dominated the political narrative for a month, and then Tina Fey turned in the defining role of her career. Ayers, clearly operating on the maxim that any publicity is good publicity, has decided to use the last of his 15 minutes to greenlight a graphic-novel adapatation of his 1993 memoir To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher....  read more

Amazon and Google make books extra portable

By Liz Stinson at 11:05 AM on February 10, 2009

It looks as though you can all but throw out the library card that's been hiding behind all of the other plastic in your wallet. With the announcement of Amazon's 230,000-plus Kindle e-book titles being formatted for your cellphone, the idea of actually going to the library is one step closer to becoming completely obsolete....  read more

James Sullivan

By Sonia Murray at 4:43 PM on February 9, 2009

Back when celebrities were courageous enough to talk race...  read more

Patrick Swayze to write a memoir

By Jeffrey Bloomer at 4:22 PM on February 5, 2009

Patrick Swayze will co-author a memoir with his wife that will chronicle his 25-year film career and his current trials with pancreatic cancer, according to People. ...  read more