• Podcasts coming. Hang in there, peeps. I’m juggling as fast as I can and Mr. Segundo is being unruly.
• Who are the new literary slanderers?
• John Freeman has uncovered a strange conspiracy: Granta’s Best Young American Novelists not only live in close proximity, but two live in the same building. Of course, I’ll be revealing my own of Best Writers in the World very soon, confining my longlist to writers who live within a six-block radius. (via TEV)
• Lippmann gets love from Maslin.
• RIP Michael Dibdin.
• C. Max Magee breaks down the IMPAC shortlist.
• Persona Non Data uncovers Borders’ shenanigans.
• Irvine Welsh and Danny Boyle: together again? (via Jeff)
• A tribute sneaker for Joy Division. (via Quiddity)
• The Most Hated Family in America.
• The 18 greatest TV drinkeries (via Largehearted Boy)
• Now here’s something you’ll never see from Tanenhaus: the Telegraph has two different reviews of Toby Litt’s Hospital running on the same day. I’d love to see more American newspapers adopt comparative review coverage like this. Alas, there are only so many column inches to go around.
• Joan of Arc’s relics are a forgery! (via Jenny D)
• Bloomberg: “Barnes & Noble Inc., the world’s largest book retailer, said an internal investigation found `numerous instances” of improperly dated stock options in the past 10 years that may have boosted the grants’ value by $45.5 million.”
• Another day, another Lethem interview.

• Colleen has interesting thoughts on the problems of adult reviewers writing about YA books.
• Laura Miller on Jamestown.
• Dan Green offers a refreshingly level-headed assessment of the n+1/litbloggers dick wars.
• Roger Ebert offers an update on his condition.
• Religions collide: “An Italian film which features Jesus drinking from a can of Coca-Cola will miss its Easter release date after the drinks giant complained.”
• Some folks are worried about the Zell/Tribune deal.
• 100 years of the little magazine. (via Ron Silliman)
• “Drugs are in the water” now in a Gray Lady headline. Progress!
• Chris Abani interviewed at TEV.

• Oscar Villalon raises interesting questions about the lines between fiction and nonfiction.
• Annalee Newitz reviews Optic Nerve #11.
• Megan points to a vanity press scamming bookstores. There’s more info here. Avoid Author Identity Press at all costs.
• Why does the media consistently ignore the Midwest? (via Isak)
• The college prank as viral video.
• Eric Klinenberg has additional ideas about what’s killing newspapers. And it ain’t the Internet.
• David Yezzi on Kingsley Amis’s poetry.
• A lost interview with Douglas Adams.
• Bill Benzon compares the Gabler and Barrier Walt Disney bios.
• Cinetrix needs your help IDing a film.
• The Norwegians mock the Danish language. (via Language Hat)
• There’s some new software available that will allow you to see fellow humans as animals do.
• The Daylight Savings Time change had no impact on power consumption. Way to go, team!

• As the flowers bloom and the foliage returns to trees, there’s one additional sign that spring is upon us. And that’s authors engaging in spousal litigation! First, it was Terry McMillan. And now Walter Mosley is being sued by his ex-wife. None of this, of course, has any bearing on Mosley’s achievements as an author. This item is shamelessly gossipy and is only being included here because I’m hoping to draw some specious correlation between seasonal change and divorce. Perhaps existential possibilities become clearer, once the snow has let up and the time has come to boogie again in the outdoors, sans parka.
• And speaking of seasonal change, Harper’s has been redesigned! (via Rarely Likable)
• Circle of Quiet: “There are days when I wake up and there is a dismal curtain pulled across my soul.” I’ve had days like this too. In such instances, I trick my soul by snapping the shower curtain from its rings, shrouding the plastic raiment over my naked corpus and howling like a housebroken hound at the rising sun. This generally puts me in a more pleasant mood, although I’m pretty sure this doesn’t work for everyone. And thankfully my neighbors haven’t yet complained.
• Patrick Kurp takes issue with Walt Whitman.
• Tricia Sullivan, whose Maul I greatly appreciated and whose books are hard to come by here in the States, has a new book called Sound Mind. Patrick Ness reviewed it not too long ago in The Guardian. Alas, Ms. Sullivan herself has suffered a serious setback. And I include this item to inform Ms. Sullivan that she has at least one devoted reader here in America and that I am very sorry to learn of recent events.
• It appears that Ian McEwan has been faced with a £2,000 fine. His digression? Grabbing some pebbles from a beach while researching On Chesil Beach. I’m relieved to learn that the Dorset authorities, apparently inspired by Singapore police tactics against Michael Fay, are going after the real criminals in our world: distinguished British authors who only wish to write accurately about Dorset. But why stop there? Imprison the jaywalkers for years! Flagellate the litterers! We must beat the heads of all dissenters, major or minor, until they understand that conformity is every citizen’s first duty.
• Will Davis reveals why he must plug his book, but fails to reveal his title in his article. No wonder he’s having difficulty. (via Booksquare)
• Kevin Holtsberry offers his thoughts on Alexander McCall Smith.
• The Bush press team’s recent assault upon Maureen Matthew Dowd is disingenuous. Dowd has a son heading into Iraq and the Bush team says that this is unduly influencing his judgment.
• I agree with Richard. As far as McCarthy is concerned, Mr. Asher’s taste does not resemble mine.
• Anne Fernald ponders how to write a negative review.
• Vulcan & Vishnu. (via Derik)
• Occasional Superheroine braves the exotic territory of Buffy fan fiction.
• I jumped into Rick Klaw’s ongoing tale of anthology editing at Part III, but the whole series is worth a look.
• Harry Potter and Leopard Walk Up to Dragon. Wow. (via The Man Registered Under Current Patronymic Law as Ed #4,361)
• A collection of cyborg birth scenes. (via Quiddity)
• Will organic coffee be a thing of the past?
• Alan Moore on pornography (via Warren Ellis)
• Newly appointed* papa Rory Ewins has launched a new podcast.
• Gingrich’s “ghetto” talk.
• Personally, I like my trains fast and in French. (via MeFi)
• It’s good to see that Charlie Brooker continues to show restraint in his writing.
• Rockslinga: “That the NYT assigned Leon Wieseltier to review Sari Nusseibeh’s new autobiography is somewhat akin to it assigning a meat lover to review a vegetarian cookbook.”
• Yo, Meghan, apples and oranges, apples and oranges. Please try again. Orthofer has more.
• A hearty welcome to the litblogosphere, Dallas Morning News. (via Critical Mass)
• Amy asks if there are any books or authors you can’t stand. I’m a pretty open-minded guy. I’ll read just about anything and I try to give everybody the benefit of the doubt. But I would rather tie my thumbs together with barbed wire than read anything by Chuck Klosterman or Steve Almond.

* — I understand that parents, particularly Australian parents, are appointed in Scotland.

• So after a fusillade of April Fool’s posts and a threatening email sent by Martin Scorsese’s representative, I’m absolutely confident that you’ll be able to trust me with relaying legitimate news here on April 2. So here we go.
• The first issue of Hot Metal Bridge, a suitably naughty title that I approve of, edited by Carolyn Kellogg, has left the building. And you’ll find Michael Martone, Dan Chaon and Alan DeNiro within its pages.
• Could it be? An end to the Left Behind series? I mean, here I was hoping for more excuses to go to hell because, contrary to the Monkees (or, rather, Neil Diamond, who penned the song), I’m not a believer. Will some brave fundamentalist step in to fill Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye’s shoes and get to the bottom of America’s evil in fictive form?
• There’s trouble a-brewing in Salt Lake City. It seems that Mark Spragg’s An Unfinished Life was set to be the One Book, One City choice, only to be rescinded for reasons unknown. Was it censorship or a legitimate kerfuffle? The Salt Lake Tribune has learned that someone complained of “coarse language” spoken by a character in Spragg’s book. Here’s hoping that more “coarse language” will be employed to get to the bottom of this brouhaha.
• Is this Santa Cruz Sentinel story on literary escorts an April Fool’s joke or legitimate journalism reporting upon those great unappreciated escorts?
• The Washington Post‘s Judith S. Gillies has info on the forthcoming PBS American novel documentary.
• Ten famous literary bars: where everybody knows your pen name.
• Tom Cox investigates author websites. (via Jenny D)
• If libraries want to get folks reading, perhaps jugglers are the answer.
• Why the litblogosphere rocks: Kelly Link appeared on The Bat Segundo Show. In that podcast, there was a considerable discussion on whether or not “literary fiction” was as horrid a label as “science fiction.” Eric Rosenfield wasn’t satisfied with some of Link’s responses, but now he’s corresponded with Link directly to set the matter straight.
• If you thought fan fiction was bad, Jason Boog examines fan screenwriting (or is that fan filmmaking?).
• Today in Letters entices literary readers once again with this letter from Fitzgerald to Maxwell Perkins.
• Congratulations to Mr. Orthofer (and his mysterious staff) for eight years of the Complete Review.
• Who knew? Jeff VanderMeer is running for SFWA President with a dubious platform that has one examining the date the announcement was made.
• I believe I linked to this before, but dig Kerouac on The Steve Allen Show. (via Outsider Writers)
• If you don’t make it to the end of the book or you’re feeling dispassionate about a book, there are two reasons: it is the book’s fault or you’re not a book critic. (via Bookninja)
• A.M. Homes: “I think about reviews of the memoir: What’s a negative review of a memoir? ‘Not only is she a lousy writer, her life sucks.'”
• Editor & Publisher: “While newspaper circulation continues to slide, readership is growing, especially with younger readers — when taking online newspaper sites into consideration. According to the latest data from the Newspaper Association of America, newspaper Web sites contributed a 13.7% increase in total newspaper audience for adults 25-to-34.” Again, the newspapers aren’t dying. They’re changing. Younger readers aren’t going away.
• The Book Babes have decided to step away from their Good Housekeeping duties and enter the blogging world.
• Terry Teachout on the Joan Didion theatrical adaptation. Ouch.
• I’ll let the readers decide which death ceremony is more ridiculous: Hunter S. Thompson’s ashes blown from a cannon or James Doohan’s ashes released into space.
• More April Fool’s fun: Major League Baseball’s first Civil Rights Game.
• Michael Glover talks with poet Tony Harrison.
• Tanenhaus enlists Michael Crichton? Surely an April Fool’s joke.
• Speaking of which, it appears that there are astonishing developments at Wired.