CAAF: Afternoon coffee

• Maud points to Richard Grayson’s great account of Junot Díaz’s reading in NYC last week. (Especially interesting to me were Díaz’s concluding remarks about the compassion necessary to write characters unlike yourself.)
• Best American [Literary Baka Baka] news: An excerpt from DFW’s 5,000-word introduction to Best American Essays 2007, and advance word on the table of contents for this year’s Best American Short Stories, guest-edited by Stephen King, and the stories making the “100 other” notables list. (Warm congrats to Christopher Rowe and Matt Cheney for their inclusion.) Both anthologies are due out in October. (First link via Paper Cuts.)
• I am entranced by the idea of this bacon candy bar.