- THE
ANTE-BOOK: Founder of New York Review of Books has a vision
of the future - a huge Web-based consortium, open to all publishers
- old and new, large and small - that would create an annotated
index of all books in print.
Wired 11/30/99
- JOIN
THE CLUB: Newspapers have discovered the book club. Several
newspapers have started book clubs, and book retailers are rejoicing.
Publishers Weekly 11/30/99
- TAKING
THE HIGH ROAD: French publisher has found a way to mine her
country's intellectual elite and her countrymen's passion for
ideas and produce a formula for commercial success. Financial
Times 11/26/99
- FAVORITE
POEM PROJECT: Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky's crusade to unleash
the power of poetry. A conversation about collaboration, creative
writing programs and the religion of art. Feed
11/23/99
- THE
"VERY DEFINITION OF CANADIAN LITERATURE" Al Purdy
is the rarest of the rare - a poet who actually makes a living
being a poet - indeed, is celebrated for it.
CBC 11/23/99
- POOR
RELATION: The Laura Ingalls Wilder Library has a leaky roof.
Inside the employees shiver in the cold. Now the Missouri library
has gone to court battling heirs and publishers to get a piece
of its namesake's estate, which it says it was promised. New
York Times 11/23/99 (one
time registration required)
- GLITTER
MEETS LITER-ature at Wednesday night's National Book Awards.
The winners: Ha Jin in fiction for "Waiting," John W.
Dower in nonfiction for "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake
of World War II," Ai in poetry for "Vice: New and Selected
Poems" and Kimberly Willis Holt in young people's literature
for "When Zachary Beaver Came to Town." Winners aside,
it was a star-studded evening. Washington
Post 11/18/99
AND: New
York Times account (one-time
registration required)
AND: Publisher's
Weekly account
- NEXT
CHAPTER: Canadian Government investigates practices of book
super-retailer. Declines full inquiry but says some of Chapters'
practices are concerning. Toronto
Globe and Mail 11/18/99
- NATIONAL
BOOK AWARDS TONIGHT: Steve Martin hosts, Oprah Winfrey to
get honorary prize. The writers? There's "little glamour
among the actual nominees this year." (AP)
Cleveland Plain Dealer 11/17/99
- ITALIAN
PARADOX: No major publishing nation boasts more world-class
publishers per capita, more enticing book design or lower list
prices. So why do Italians buy so few books? Publisher's
Weekly 11/16/99
- THE
INEVITABLE FUTURE OF THE BOOK BUSINESS: International panel
at Frankfurt Fair discusses the future of publishing. A bookless
book industry? E-books, publishing on demand and book chips. Publisher's
Weekly 11/15/99
- CANADA'S
GOVERNOR GENERAL LITERARY AWARDS ANNOUNCED: Matt Cohen's "Elizabeth
and After" wins English prize. The French language fiction
prize goes to Lise Tremblay for "La Danse juive." CBC
11/16/99
- E-PROJECT:
New Orleans writer e-mails off her e-book to production company,
negotiates e-deal for a movie project. Production begins in January.
Wired 11/16/99
-
A
THOUSAND LINES OF POETRY: Simon Armitage has been appointed
official "Poet of the Millennium Dome." He'll compose
a 1000-word poem for England's millennial project. London
Times 11/15/99
-
AT
THE RAW EDGE OF LIFE: An assessment of double-Booker novelist
J.M. Coetzee's work. Boston
Globe 11/14/99
-
IF
THEY CAN BEAT US AT CHESS... New fiction-writing computer
software spits out stories in seconds. Most people wouldn't
be able to tell it was a machine, says the software designer.
"This story does not fit my idea of what a computer would
write like," he says. "It breaks a lot of rules."
New York Times 11/11/99
(Registration required
for access)
-
LIKE
"LOOSE CHANGE FROM A TORN POCKET": More highly-placed
editors and publishers are switching teams and becoming literary
agents. Does the world really need more literary agents?
New York Times 11/11/99
(Registration required
for access)
-
BEGGING
FOR REVIEW: Author buys tiny front-page ads in the New York
Times to try and goad reviewer Michiko Kakutani into paying
attention to his book.
Salon 11/11/99
-
BAD
YEAR FOR BIOGRAPHY: Bring out the life support. The biography
as a genre is having a rough time. Is it just a string of bad
luck or are serious literary changes in the works? Philadelphia
Inquirer 11/11/99
-
RIGHT
WRITE: Here's a parody of the New York Times' often overly-serious
column of writers writing what it means to write right. Salon
11/9/99
-
E-READING
just got a big step closer. Microsoft and Donnelley
(the largest printer of US books) team up to make e-publishing
easy for publishers. Publishers
Weekly 11/9/99
-
DOES
NATURE ABHOR A CURSOR AT REST? The drive to write, says
Richard Ford, is powerful for writers. Sometimes, though, it
works better if you don't. New
York Times 11/8/99 (registration
required for access)
-
"SOBER,
SEARING AND CYNICAL": A review of J.M Coetzee's "Disgrace,"
which won the Booker Prize last week. Salon
11/5/99
-
"MONSTROUSLY
LONG, ECCENTRICALLY STRUCTURED AND HIGHLY SELF-INDULGENT":
Nonetheless, Simon Schama's new Rembrandt biography is "fascinating
and admirable." London
Telegraph 11/4/99
-
HARDWARE'S
HOT: Bonnie Burnard has won the Giller, Canada's top literary
prize with her story of a hardware store owner and his family.
CBC 11/4/99
ALSO: Jean
Echenoz wins France's top literary prize
CBC 11/4/99
-
THE
TROUBLE AT TALK: Turmoil at new magazine has staffers coming
and going. Insiders dish the dirt. Village
Voice 11/3/99
-
WHY
IS IT THE SERIOUS NOVELS THAT ALWAYS WIN? Dissecting the
thinking behind this year's Booker Prize for literature.
London Telegraph 11/3/99
-
PUBLISHERS
POURING MONEY into e-startups. Publisher's
Weekly 11/2/99
-
VALUE
OF DISCREDITED BUSH BIO soars on internet auction sites
as publisher withdraws book. "Beanie Babies in hardback,"
one Borders manager calls it. Baltimore
Sun 11/2/99
AND: Editor
at St. Martin's Press who quit after Bush debacle is hired
for Talk Magazine. Publisher's
Weekly 11/2/99
-
THE
BUSH BOOK: Critic tries to work up a good mad about St.
Martin's Press pulling George W bio last week, but finds he
can't. It's business as usual in the publishing world. Washington
Post 11/1/99
AND:
How the Bush book incident went down. New
York Observer 11/1/99