Welcome news for Miranda July fans: she tweeted this week that she’s finished work on her debut novel, The First Bad Man. The book will publish in January 2015.
New Miranda July Work on the Way
It’s not plagiarism… it’s angloglobalisation?
On the London Review of Books blog, Kaya Genç makes the case that the similarities between the successful Turkish author Elif Şafak's work and Zadie Smith's books is a fact of Turkey's shifting cultural values rather than plagiarism: "Istanbul, the city Shafak returned to after writing her book in London and the setting for many of her earlier novels, resembles London more and more." For a bit of context, here's Lydia Kiesling's rundown of the initial scandal.
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Comedy Central Books
Comedy Central will team up with Running Press to launch a joint publishing venture called Comedy Central Books. Their first title will be a "holiday themed novelty book" by Denis Leary. Fun Fact: Leary is Conan O'Brien's third cousin.
The Academic Life
Whether or not you believe that Oxford University Press is “the largest, most diverse and most respected university press in the world,” you’ll appreciate this review of a new history of the company, which goes through OUP's origins, its relationship with its namesake and the opening of its New York office in 1896.
Holiday OuLiPo
This holiday season, show a little restraint. Write a short short that uses each word only once, and email it to [email protected] by December 31 at midnight for your chance to win Electric Literature vol. 1 and be published on their blog, The Outlet. Further details available here.
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Two Chapters of Train Dreams
You can read the first two chapters of Denis Johnson's latest novel Train Dreams on his Facebook page.