“She gathered books to display for attendees and discovered that inside the cover of one, ‘The Koran for Dummies,’ someone had written “lies cover to cover,” drawn a swastika and made a disparaging remark about the Prophet Muhammad.” The president of the American Library Association reports “startling increases” in 2016 of vandalism, including hateful messages, at libraries. The Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has begun formally tracking such incidents to determine whether the increase is “a blip or a trend.”
No Bastion for Books
New Dramas Focus On Atom Bombs and Witch Hunts
WGN America has ordered a 13-episode drama about the Manhattan Project. The series, which is set for a summer 2014 premiere, will be written by Sam Shaw and directed by Thomas Schlamme. This marks the second series ordered by WGN America this year. The first one, Salem, will focus on the Massachusetts town’s infamous 17th century witch trials.
Infinite Jest Inspires Infinite Tributes
First Poor Yorick Entertainment emerged as a “visual exploration of the filmography of James O. Incandenza and the world of David Foster Wallace‘s Infinite Jest.” Then, as The New York Times reports, “Parks and Recreation” co-creator Michael Schur paired up with The Decembrists to direct a music video inspired by the book. (You can watch the video on YouTube.) Now, thanks to this Radiolab podcast (and an alley-oop from @nateharris), another one of the novel’s scenes is brought to life.
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James Salter (1925-2015)
Writer James Salter died on Friday. We interviewed him in 2012 and he reflected on memory and on his long life as a writer. He said, “Everything you know, nobody else knows, and everything you imagine or see belongs to you alone. What you write comes out of that, both in the trivial and deepest sense.” Prior to that, in 2010, Sonya Chung wrote about Salter’s legacy and how he finally seemed to be getting his due as more than just “a writer’s writer.”
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Where In The World Are You?
Jim Harrison passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 78, and there’s no better way to honor his memory (and get acquainted with his work) than to take a moment to sit down with these seven fantastic poems from his last collection, Dead Man’s Float.
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Good Writer or Bad Dad?
Does being a writer make you a bad father? Matthew Norman ponders his fear at Salon. “As a fiction writer, I’m perpetually in some state of preoccupation. At any given moment, I’m suffering over people who don’t exist—who will never exist.” Maybe he should try Polly Rosenwaike’s tactic and read fiction about the opposite parent.
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New Murakami in 2014
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