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16 Stories

October 2008
- Death Takes a Holiday in Saramago's Latest
  
  Radar | Oct 10, 08 6:24 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The premise of Jose Saramago’s Death With Interruptions seems a bit cutesy at first, with a Buffy-esque Grim Reaper deciding to take some time off her job, writes Shannon McBeen in Radar . But as Saramago explores the ramifications of universal immortality, he manages to transform “the admittedly weak premise into a wry, smart, absurd, original novel” by dint of sheer “effing good writing.” More »
  
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  book • literature • Portugal • book reviews • writer
- Rodanthe Author Still Loves Himself
  
  Entertainment Weekly | Oct 3, 08 7:11 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Nicholas Sparks may run low on creative gas, but that only lasts for a minute or two. The multimillionaire author of The Notebook and Nights in Rodanthe works out for nearly 3 hours a day before writing 2,000 words and coaching track at his son's school. ''I'm efficient," he smiles. And he's confident enough to compare himself to Shakespeare—which may be why he bristles at the tag of "romance writer." More »
  
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  author • writer • novelist • Nicholas Sparks
September 2008
- Wallace Kept Up 'Debate Inside His Head'
  
  Salon | Sep 14, 08 7:42 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - David Foster Wallace was remembered today as a complex novelist who engaged in layer upon layer of self-examination. The author of Infinite Jest "wrote about the maddening impossibility of scrutinizing yourself without also scrutinizing yourself scrutinizing yourself and so on," Laura Miller writes in Salon. Wallace's suicide remains a mystery, "but any reader can see how his fiction had, in recent years, moved into greater darkness." More »
  
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  writer • novelist • David Foster Wallace
- Writer David Foster Wallace Found Dead
  
  Los Angeles Times | Sep 13, 08 10:10 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Author David Foster Wallace, best known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest , has been found dead in his California home at the age of 46, the Los Angeles Times reports. His wife, who found his body Friday, told police that he hanged himself. Wallace gained worldwide renown for his ambitious first novel, The Broom of the System , but he cemented his literary reputation with the 1,000-page Jest because of its complexity and dark humor. More »
  
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  writer • David Foster Wallace
August 2008
- Unreleased Kafka Materials May See Light
  
  New York Times | Aug 18, 08 11:23 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Franz Kafka, who died in 1924, is in the news because of the actions of his disobedient literary executor. Max Brod, who fled Prague in 1939, left a valuable collection of the Czech existentialist's papers with his secretary. She died last year at 101, and her daughters may be keeping the materials in a Tel Aviv apartment overrun with cats, the New York Times reports. More »
  
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  Israel • writer • novel • Franz Kafka
- Aspiring Novelist? Read This
  
  Boston Globe | Aug 11, 08 2:15 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - “I’ve always wanted to write” is something novelist Allegra Goodman hears a lot, so she lays out some advice in the Boston Globe for the doctors, venture capitalists, and lactation consultants with stories to tell: “To begin, don’t write about yourself.” Writing is about imagining and understanding other people’s lives. Observe people and “replay their conversation in your mind.” More »
  
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  literature • writer • novel • novelist • creative writing
- Palestinian Poet Dead at 67
  
  Los Angeles Times | Aug 10, 08 7:56 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish died yesterday from heart surgery complications in Houston at age 67, the Los Angeles Times reports. Considered Palestine’s unofficial poet laureate, Darwish penned the territory’s symbolic Declaration of Independence in 1988 and depicted life under Israeli rule in his work. "He was the Palestinian conscience," a Palestinian MP told the Daily Telegraph . More »
  
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  obituary • Palestine • writer • poet laureate
- Conservative Artists Should Stand Tall
  
  Washington Post | Aug 9, 08 5:57 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - There are conservatives in Hollywood, writes Andrew Klavan in the Washington Post . Unfortunately, they are all tip-toeing and cowering, afraid of being dismissed by liberals who run the town—and it’s time that stopped. Liberal values pervade TV and movies, and not just in message films. It is artistic gospel that American might is sinister, Christians "intolerant," housewives "desperate," and corporations "evil." More »
  
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  movie • film • Hollywood • media • writer • conservatives • culture wars
- Du Maurier: Neglected Genius?
  
  Wall Street Journal | Aug 2, 08 7:51 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Novelist Daphne du Maurier’s works have been read by millions, adapted into films, and kept in print for decades—yet she has been unable to shake her reputation as a pop-lit hack. Cynthia Crossen looks at her career in the Wall Street Journal and argues that the author of Rebecca and The Birds deserves serious literary recognition, or at least a more flattering legacy. More »
  
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  literature • writer • books • hack
June 2008
- 'Realish' Sedaris Book Skirts Memoir Scrutiny
  
  New York Times | Jun 8, 08 10:45 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - With his new book of nonfiction essays, Engulfed in Flames , David Sedaris finds himself engulfed in questions of truth and accuracy. In America, the recent explosion of memoirs has been followed with one scandal after another, prompting more scrutiny of the humorist’s work. “I do think Sedaris exaggerates too much for a writer using a nonfiction label," a New Republic writer argued last year. More »
  
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  book • literature • memoir • humor • writer • nonfiction books • fake memoirs
- Graphic Bod Novel Jars Germany
  
  New York Times | Jun 6, 08 4:16 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A highly explicit novel that explores every body crevice of its teenage female narrator has scandalized Germany—and topped bestseller lists, the New York Times reports. The controversial novel, which mixes the anatomical and scatological with the erotic, is a feminist statement challenging a world that expects women to be overly shaved and sanitized, said author Charlotte Roche. More »
  
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  Germany • feminism • author • writer • sexuality • hygiene • German
November 2007
- Striking Writers Enlist Kids
  
  Associated Press | Nov 12, 07 6:20 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Striking scribes took advantage of Veterans Day to bring their kids to picket lines in Los Angeles today, the AP reports. The move garnered attention and gave parents a chance to tutor youngsters in payments and residuals. "It's a little rude for the producers to take so much and have nothing left to share," said one 10-year-old carrying a homemade sign. More »
  
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  Hollywood • Hollywood writers' strike • Writers Guild of America • Disney • film studio • writer • Veterans Day
- Literary Bull Blundered and Thrived
  
  Time | Nov 10, 07 7:33 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Egotist, chauvinist, brawler, Mailer battled "a culture subsiding into room temperature," Time says. His work vented "his own inner conditions" as he lurched from fame at age 25 to so-so books to his "brilliant" Armies of the Night in 1968. He made big gaffes—blaming patients for their cancer, directing bad films, helping parole a murderer—but "something important was lost" when he died today. “Norman come back," says Time . "Nothing is forgiven.” More »
  
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  obituary • literature • writer • Norman Mailer • 1960s
- How Will TV Writers Work if TV is Dead?
  
  New York Times | Nov 1, 07 10:01 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - TV writers could walk out any day now, leaving late night TV and topical shows like The Daily Show in the lurch, and one of the sticking points in their talks with entertainment producers is their demand for a larger slice of DVD and online video revenue. But as Saul Hansell of the NY Times points out, the Internet isn't done upending everything we know about showbiz moneymaking. More »
  
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  Internet • television • Jon Stewart • online videos • DVD • writer • Late Night
August 2007
- Scribe Says Bye to Cool Tabloid
  
  Salon | Aug 25, 07 5:13 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Gone is the tabloid that claimed "February Sues for More Days" and "Hide-and-Seek Player Found After 34 Years," but what becomes of its writers? At least one is still missing his calling as an inventor of comedy-news. In Salon , Stan Sinberg recalls how he conceived tall tales for the Weekly World News for 3 years, a calling he considered higher than writing for the Enquirer or penning celebrity gossip. More »
  
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  newspaper • news • tabloids • writer • Weekly World News
- Writer Grace Paley Dies at 84
  
  Los Angeles Times | Aug 23, 07 6:07 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Acclaimed writer and activist Grace Paley, who in only three collections of short stories gave earthy voice to the interior life of the Bronx Everywoman, died yesterday at age 84 in her Vermont home, the Los Angeles Times reports. Paley—whose sensibility admirer Philip Roth called "splendidly comic and unladylike"—suffered from breast cancer. More »
  
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  Iraq war • obituary • literature • breast cancer • feminism • writer • activist