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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: literature

literature stories: 138 news summaries

41 - 60 of 138 Stories | << Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next >>

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(Newser) - David Foster Wallace declared war on depression and addiction in writing his last, unfinished novel, D. T. Max writes in the New Yorker. The writer's suicide by hanging last year was the culmination of a struggle to live normally, to achieve what he called “adult sanity," without... More »

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suicide • fiction • literature • author • novel • book • David Foster Wallace • Infinite Jest

OPINION

 Hollywood Is 
 Fatal to Fabulous Books 


Feb 17, 09 6:43 PM CST
(Newser) - Willing Davidson knows his complaint isn't original. But he can't help asking in Slate, "Why does Hollywood take our favorite novels and turn them into crap?" In Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road, readers see their own hopes within those of his characters; in the movie, character replaces plot "and... More »

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Hollywood • literature • book • movies • Revolutionary Road

Ian McEwan: I Sheltered Rushdie After 1989 Fatwa

Novelist reveals how he protected his friend

Feb 16, 09 7:55 AM CST
(Newser) - Twenty years after the Iranian leadership declared a death sentence on Salman Rushdie, fellow novelist Ian McEwan reveals that he sheltered the writer in a house in the English countryside. In a long profile of McEwan in the New Yorker, the novelist describes how the pair listened to news of... More »

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literature • Salman Rushdie • Satanic Verses • fatwa • Islamic extremism • English literature • Ian McEwan

OPINION

Bad Book? Vent
Your Fury on Amazon

One-star reviews offer relief from
literary anxiety

Feb 9, 09 10:30 AM CST
(Newser) - Anne Enright's The Gathering won the prestigious Booker Prize and dozens of adulatory reviews, but Cynthia Crossen of the Wall Street Journal didn't find much to admire in the bleak story of a dysfunctional family. Luckily, there's a place to vent such disappointment, she writes: amid Amazon's readers' reviews, where... More »

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Internet • literature • book reviews • book • Amazon

(Newser) - JK Rowling cleared up any fuss about her Harry Potter villain’s French name today, as she accepted that country’s Legion d’honneur for her contribution to the arts, Reuters reports. “I can assure you that the decision did not come from any anti-French sentiment,” Rowling... More »

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Harry Potter • Nicolas Sarkozy • France • JK Rowling • literature • knighthood • Voldemort • Legion d'honneur

 Updike Mused 
 on Own  
 'Overdue 
 Demise'

3-stanza poem to be published this year

Jan 30, 09 12:44 PM CST
(Newser) - John Updike considered his own mortality, and did so with his usual wry wit. The evidence is in one of his last poems called "Requiem," writes the New York Post. It begins: "It came to me the other day: Were I to die, no one would... More »

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obituary • literature • John Updike • poem

APPRECIATION

 Updike: An Author 
 'Hoping to Talk to America' 

Superlatives hardly lacking in wake of writer's death at 76

Jan 27, 09 3:44 PM CST
(Newser) - John Updike, who died today at 76, was many things: Bob Ryan, in the Boston Globe, calls him the author of the “most spellbinding essay ever written about baseball.” For Carolyn Kellogg, in the Los Angeles Times, the first line of his story A&P displays a “... More »

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obituary • literature • novelist • author • novel • Ted Williams • John Updike • sports writer

 More Americans 
 Reading Fiction: NEA 

Study indicates literary decline might be reversing

Jan 12, 09 1:37 PM CST
(Newser) - The percentage of Americans reading fiction has increased for the first time in years, a new study by the National Endowment for the Arts indicates. The reported 50.2% of the population who picked up a book for pleasure marks a turnaround from a statistical decline in literary culture over... More »

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Harry Potter • Internet • literature • reading • libraries • book • National Endowment for the Arts • Oprah's Book Club • Twilight


 Web Novels  
 Let Readers 
 Drive the Plot 

Weekly installments end with a choice

Jan 5, 09 3:03 PM CST
(Newser) - Fantasy fans who’d like a role in the action can turn to literature’s latest incarnation: the online Web-novel, or wovel, NPR reports. Readers can click and read a chapter each week. Then, “at the end of every installment, there's a binary plot branch point with a vote... More »

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Internet • Web 2.0 • literature • reading • web • novel • book

Still Searching for JD Salinger

As the reclusive author turns 90, we're left to wonder who he was; will he publish again?

Dec 31, 08 10:52 AM CST
(Newser) - JD Salinger turns 90 tomorrow, but the milestone brings no new clarity to the life of the mysterious recluse, who has maintained four decades of closely-guarded silence. The New York Times does some close reading of the literary icon's work in a search for clues. The most critical questions: Has... More »

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literature • birthday • author • The Catcher in the Rye • JD Salinger

analysis

 Hollywood, Lay Off the 'Burbs 

Hating on the suburbs is the cheapest, easiest move in art

Dec 28, 08 2:00 PM CST
(Newser) - Revolutionary Road, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, “is the latest entry in a long stream of art that portrays the American suburbs as the physical correlative to spiritual and mental death,” Lee Siegel writes in the Washington Post. Everyone from Allen Ginsberg to Sylvia Plath has given... More »

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Hollywood • Leonardo DiCaprio • film • art • literature • Weeds • suburbs • Allen Ginsberg • Kate Winslet • Revolutionary Road

ANALYSIS

Recession Shreds Publishing Industry; Is Literature Next?

Until outfits learn to cope with digital challenges, it'll be a tough go for writers

Dec 23, 08 4:04 PM CST
(Newser) - The publishing industry has been battered in the past month, as large houses hemorrhage editors and consolidate divisions, leading some to wonder if literary publishing will ever be the same, Jason Boog writes on Salon. The list of ills is long: too-high advances paid to a dwindling number of sure... More »

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press • literature • book • corporate governance • ebooks • publishing industry • economic downturn

Glossies

Japan Fetes Genji, World's
First Novel, at 1,000

Three very different English translations available to get you caught up

Dec 20, 08 6:39 AM CST
(Newser) - Japan is celebrating the 1,000th birthday of The Tale of Genji, a story penned by a woman in an imperial court that is widely regarded as the first modern novel, the Economist reports. The chronicle of an aristocratic aesthete’s sexual adventures is many things to many readers, including... More »

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Japan • sex • literature • love • anniversary • novel • book • Japanese literature • The Tale of Genji

(Newser) - Two years after announcing that he had given up writing, Gabriel García Márquez is at work on a new novel, says a close friend. Fellow writer Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza confirmed rumors that the Nobel Prize-winning 82-year-old is working on a love story, the Guardian reports. More »

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Colombia • literature • writing • novel • Gabriel Garcia Marquez

OPINION

 Morrison 
 Tops Times 
 10 Best 
 Books List 
 

NY Times names its top 10 for 2008

Dec 4, 08 3:41 PM CST
(Newser) - Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison's most recent novel and nonfiction books about two wars feature on the New York Times list of the 10 best books of the year. They include:
  • A Mercy: Morrison's tale of 17th-century slaves and masters is "part Faulknerian puzzle, part dream-song."
... More »

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New York Times • literature • book • Toni Morrison • Drew Gilpin Faust • 2008 • Roberto Bolano • VS Naipaul • Jane Mayer • Jhumpa Lahiri • Julian Barnes • Best of 2008

Jane Austen Museum Bans Fans' Ashes

Devotees were using her garden as their
final resting place

Dec 3, 08 6:10 PM CST
(Newser) - The caretakers of Jane Austen's estate in England have issued an unusual plea to her devoted fans: Please stop having your ashes scattered in her garden. Museum representatives say they understand the passion but can't allow the practice. “It is distressing for visitors to see mounds of human ash,... More »

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England • literature • museums • English literature • fans • Jane Austen • ashes

OPINION

 Top Foreign Fiction of 2008 

Pair of Spanish-language works highlight NPR list

Dec 2, 08 4:40 PM CST
(Newser) - Of 340 new works of foreign fiction and poetry translated for US audiences this year, NPR has culled five of the best into a list:
  • Senselessness, by Horacio Castellanos Moya: A Latin American freelance writer is hired by the Catholic Church to edit sinister documents in this
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
fiction • literature • translation • Best of 2008

(Newser) - Literary agent Dan Strone oversaw two multimillion-dollar celebrity book deals last week, stunning the publishing industry, the New York Observer reports. He scored $2.5 million for a Sarah Silverman book and drew bids topping $7 million for a Jerry Seinfeld title. Both were auctioned without a proposal. “I... More »

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Jerry Seinfeld • literature • publishing • Sarah Silverman • book • celebrity tell-alls • Dan Strone

 Traces of the Real 
 Crusoe Unearthed 

Character was based on marooned Scotsman

Nov 1, 08 1:38 PM CDT
(Newser) - A dig has unearthed remnants of the real-life Robinson Crusoe’s stay on an island west of Chile, the BBC reports. Daniel Defoe’s character is said to have been based on a sailor who was rescued from the island in 1709. Traces of his four-year presence include post-holes from... More »

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archaeology • literature • island • novel

 Mystery Writer 
 Tony Hillerman 
 Dead at 83 

Penned police novels infused with Navajo culture

Oct 27, 08 6:39 AM CDT
(Newser) - Bestselling author Tony Hillerman died yesterday at 83 of pulmonary failure, the AP reports. He was known for his mystery novels, which featured two Navajo policemen with distinct views on their people, constantly balancing the Navajo world with the Anglo one. A onetime journalist, he found success with Skinwalkers in... More »

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obituary • literature • mystery • Native American • novel • book • Tony Hillerman

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