- 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.
Not only do Granta’s favorite novels live in close proximity…six (or arguably seven) of them have yet to finish novels. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Short stories are great. But why does Granta persist in mislabeling this list. Why not “Best Young American Writers?” Novels, sell, I know, but didn’t you used to have to write one in order to call yourself a novelist?