On behalf of every reader / HBO viewer who has spent days upon days in Westeros and is beginning to get a little anxious for Game of Thrones updates, Entertainment Weekly has spoken with George R. R. Martin himself to confirm publication plans and talk about the television series. That’s not to say that Martin is committing himself to any hard and fast schedule, though. “My plan right now is still seven,” he says, referencing his A Song of Ice and Fire series. “But first I have to finish Book Six. Get back to me when I’m half-way through Book Seven and then maybe I’ll tell you something more meaningful.”
George R. R. Martin Commits to Seven Books (But Maybe Eight?)
Beckett’s Books
The Cambridge University Press just published The Letters of Samuel Beckett, Vol. 2. (Vol. 1 can be found here.) That alone is worth your time, but as an added bonus the Press’ blog has compiled a partial syllabus for the author — a sampling of the titles “on the writer’s nightstand … from 1941 to 1956.”
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The Too-Short History of Soft Skull
NY Press has a long look at the history of iconoclastic indie press Soft Skull, which recently shuttered its New York office, effectively ending the publisher’s run as a standalone press and making it just an imprint of California-based parent (and, it should be noted, rescuer from financial straights) Counterpoint. Incidentally, I’ve had a front row seat for all this, as, for the book I’m co-editing, I was initially working with the good folks in New York and then everything was suddenly (and thankfully without a hitch) transferred to the folks in Berkeley. (Thanks, Craig)
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Morgan Jerkins on Exposing History’s Omissions
Morgan Jerkins reflects on the importance of researching and telling her family's story, a project she set off on for her book, Wandering in Strange Lands.
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On the Road with Hurston and Hughes
Yuval Taylor tells the story of a fortuitous road trip, on which Zora Neale Hurston drove Langston Hughes from Mobile to Tuskegee.
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Nancy Drew and the Not-So-Secret Ghostwriters
For CrimeReads, Radha Vatsal takes a look at Carolyn Keene's many identities and how, in the end, it doesn't matter who wrote the Nancy Drew books.
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Lowcountry Living
Recommended Viewing: John Lusk Hathaway’s “One Foot in Eden or The Battle of Sol Legare” photography series, which features images of “the rich history and modern struggles” of the small Gullah community outside of Charleston, South Carolina.
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