I recently interviewed author Tara Ison, who just published her second novel, The List. We talked about the experience of writing The List in comparison to A Child Out of Alcatraz (her first novel), her relationship to Los Angeles, and partying on the roof of the Holiday Inn. BookFox: The two main characters in “The […]
The full list of authors slated for the Festival of Books is up on the LA Times website now. In addition to the authors I mentioned in the previous post (scroll down), here are some additional highlights: Chris Abani Gary Shteyngart Deborah Eisenberg Steve Erickson Aimee Bender Percival Everett Tara Ison Judith Freeman Janet Fitch […]
So I’ve been following the Tournament of Books with glee, and I just had to link to the judge’s essay on Richard Ford’s Lay of the Land VS Upamanyu Chatterjee’s English, August. It’s hilarious. And I’m loving the comments from the peanut gallery at the bottom, although I still wanted Absurdistan to win over Half […]
Garrison Keillor is in some hot water over comments he made about homosexuals in an article on Slate. Then Dan Savage takes him to task in an overwrought, hyper-sensational article entitled, Fuck Garrison Keillor (via Pinkys Paperhaus). I’m going to have to side with Keillor on this one. Dan Savage, at least in this article, […]
I’m gearing up for the LA Times Festival of Books, even though it’s still a month and a half away. Through a series of posts on this blog during that last weekend in April, I’ll be covering news, readings, reactions, buzz, landmark literary happenings, and anything else you’d like to know. If you’re going, stop […]
T.C. Boyle is a remarkably entertaining writer, and I don’t mean that pejoratively at all – no nasty connotations like only entertaining, or entertaining to the detriment of style or plot. No, he just writes stories that are word/plot candy, and I stay up late gorging myself on them. Last night I was reading […]
The reading by Daniel Alarcon last night at Skylight Books in Los Angeles had what every reading should have: sponsorship by Dewars. Yes, that’s right, the folks who make whiskey. They made mixed drinks with ginger beer and the packed house drank enough to make listening easy but not so much to make listening difficult. […]
For the second time (first in 1996), Granta has named the Best of Young American Novelists (all of them under 35). Some choices are predictable (Jonathan Safran Foer and Gary Shteyngart), but there are a number I haven’t read but now want to. There’s been buzz in the blogosphere about Daniel Alarcon’s Lost City […]
The Los Angeles Times announced the finalists for its annual Book Prize last night. Where? In New York, of course. Los Angeles always seems to be deferring to the great agent/publishing nucleus on the other side of the country (a very practical move, I know, but also a shame). Below are the nominees for Fiction […]
Philip Roth has nabbed the PEN/Faulkner award for “Everyman”. It’s the third time he’s won (previously for “Operation Shylock” and “The Human Stain”). But I found the shortlist intriguing – All four of the runners-up were short story collections: Charles D’Ambrosio ”The Dead Fish Museum” Deborah Eisenberg ”Twilight of the Superheroes” Amy Hempel ”The Collected […]
