INTIMACY OF INK: Bibliophiles - fear not the electronic book - for its wonders transcend the printed page. Intellectual Capital 10/29/99

BOOKER BICKER: The usual publishers' rows, sponsor complaints and judges' griping behind England's top literary prize. Salon 10/28/99 

WHAT POETRY TEACHES US about ourselves. Reflections on the national psyche and history by poet laureate Robert Pinsky. The Atlantic 11/99

A DEAL FOR FIVE NEW RUSHDIE books - four new novels and a collection of essays. Publisher's Weekly 10/26/99

SOUTH AFRICAN is first writer to win Booker Prize for fiction twice. JM Coetzee won for his novel "Disgrace" - previously won in 1983 for "The Life and Times of Michael K." BBC 10/26/99
     AND: More on Coetzee. London Telegraph
     AND: Washington Post account, New York Times report

FINALISTS for this year's Turner Prize are announced in London. Winner to be announced November 30. ARTNewspaper.com 10/21/99

BACKLIST LIFELINE: Selling new books is where the glamour (and much of the money) is. But for independent bookstores, publishing's backlists are the main course. Publisher's Weekly 10/21/99 
     AND: New book chronicles the personal ups and downs of running an independent store. Seattle Times 10/21/99

PIGGING OUT ON LIT CRIT: Never have there been so many books and so many things written about them in so many places. And literary reviews have probably never mattered less. Has American literary criticism burned itself out? Village Voice 10/21/99

JAPAN BAN: Japanese publisher says it will appeal the government ban of a book documenting with letters the homosexual love life of well-known writer Yukio Mishima, who died in 1970. CBC 10/21/99 

E-MEDIA: Internet media are exploding, and stories in traditional media about dot-coms are as hot as the tech IPO's. What's behind the hype? Washington Post 10/21/99

CANADIAN LITERARY PRIZES: How is it that the lists for Canada's top two literary prizes are so stunningly different? National Post 10/20/99
   AND: Small presses triumph in Governor General's list. Toronto Globe and Mail 10/20/99

THE LAST EDITOR: Robert Gottlieb was the last real editor at the New Yorker. The wreckage of "Talk" magazine underlines the real failures of the Tina Brown years at the venerable literary mag. Boston Globe 10/20/99 

TRUE ALTERNATIVE: With the Village Voice empire up for sale, New York Magazine media critic Michael Wolff wonders what's so alternative about alternative weeklies - and offers a plan to go head-to-head with the New York Times. New York Magazine 10/19/99

TALKING THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL: Can new voice recognition software make a great writer out of a great talker? It's a little more complicated than that. LA Weekly 10/15-21/99

WRITING AND TALKING: Two very different things. But in this age of the book tour and chat shows, writers must learn both. Did anyone ever ask Proust to talk about his work? Toronto Globe and Mail 10/18/99

IN EUROPE - CLASSIC BOOKS BY THE POUND: Publisher still makes money selling the classics at rock-bottom prices. Washington Post 10/18/99

PUBLISHER MAKES TYPO: now five of its major authors aren't eligible for Canadian literary honors. CBC 10/15/99

BUZZ OFF: Now the buzz has died down, a growing consensus says Tina's lost it. Tina Brown doesn't have enough money to smooth over the problems at "Talk." New York Observer 10/14/

CONVERGENCE: It's not about the Web; it's not about print; it's about publishing." Publishers finally start to get it.  Publisher's Weekly 10/14/99

GERMAN PUBLISHER WITHDRAWS HOLOCAUST MEMOIR:  Historian's report concludes author wasn't a Jewish orphan  but a Swiss-born child named Bruno Doessekker. New York Times 10/14/99

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD nominees announced. Looking past the big names. (AP) Dallas Morning News 10/14/99 
      

CANADIAN ARCHEOLOGIST couldn't get job as archeologist, writes book, gets positive reader reviews on the internet and lands $1.5 million 10-year book contract. "Terrific" he says. CBC 10/13/99

DUTCH TREAT: George Will called it "dishonorable." Peggy Noonan decried it as a "waste." Nonetheless, Edmund Morris' Reagan bio has hit the Best-seller charts (and it's No.1 inside the Beltway) Philadelphia Inquirer 10/13/99

SUSHI IN NEBRASKA: Americans have bought the idea of the world-wide economy, their tastes becoming more international, except -publishers say - when it comes to fiction. 
Christian Science Monitor 10/13/199

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY'S NEW EDITOR: "No literary background, a volcanic temperament and a history of colossal bad judgment." Be afraid. The Nation 10/25/99

SAUL BELLOW WONDERS how many true lovers of literature there are in the day of movies and high technology. 
New York Times 10/11/99

MICHAEL KELLY has taken pains to reassure readers that The Atlantic magazine won't change much under his charge. A few changes might be welcome, writes one critic. Feed 10/7/99

REVISITING GUNTER: In the week since he won the Nobel Prize for literature, Critics have been reassessing the writings of Gunter Grass. Slate 10/8/99

BOOKS ARE BOOMING: Sales for the four largest bookstore chains are up 10 percent in the first half of the year. Superstores up 13 percent. 
Publisher's Weekly 10/5/99

ONE GOOD BOOK: A tough year for fiction in Canada. Finalists for Canada's top literary award, the Giller Prize, are announced. It's a difficult choice, says a judge - "In Canada, I would say it's almost enough to read just one good novel a year." National Post 10/5/99
     ALSO: "A predictable exercise" 
CBC 10/5/99

DOUBLE DUTCH: A big wave of reviews about Edmund Morris' controversial new Reagan biography hits shore this morning. A sampling: New York Times, Morris defends himself in the Boston Globe, Imagining Reagan in the San Francisco Chronicle. A dud in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

BUZZ OR BUST: Early reviews of Edmund Morris' Reagan book have been devastating. With so much buzz it'll either be a mega-hit or on the remainder tables by Christmas. Washington Post 10/4/99

THE FUTURE OF FICTION: A blue-ribbon panel debates the future of writing. Philadelphia Inquirer 10/3/99