“I have a girl brain but in a boy body. This is called transgender. I was born this way!” The Los Angeles Times reports on an elementary-school teacher reading I Am Jazz, written by transgender teenager Jazz Jennings, with her class; encouragingly, not that many parents freak out. Pair with writer T.K. Dalton reflecting on how to traverse the terrain of books, children, and gender.
A Well-Rounded Curriculum
Adobe Books and Arts Cooperative
Adobe Books may become Adobe Books and Arts Cooperative thanks to a collection of young, influential artists who do not want to see their favorite bookstore/community space close its doors. You know, the one that records its book sales in a composition notebook, not a computer system. (h/t Lydia Kiesling)
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British Writers On Lady Chatterley’s Lover
At the Telegraph, Roya Nikkhah looks back at the unpublished letters of some of Britain’s greatest writers that reveal what they really thought of the controversial Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
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Positivity and Graphic Art
Chris (Simpsons Artist) will be publishing a book on positivity. Check out a few scenes from it in The Guardian. He has advice for how to handle everything from depression to hair nits. For more graphic art, we review the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Drawn and Quarterly.
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Partying with Houellebecq
Nelly Kaprielian parties with Michel Houellebecq after he wins the Goncourt: “‘After France, the world!’ jokes Beigbeder, and everybody’s quick to raise a glass.”
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Amy Tan on Being the First for Some Readers
Nicole Chung interviews Amy Tan about her new memoir Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir, one of the highlights is when Tan ponders being one of the ‘first’ authors that people name/read when they think of Asian-American literature. “But when [“The Joy Luck Club”] came out, it did feel like there were many expectations from all areas — not just in the Asian American community, but in Asian culture itself, and in any ethnic studies community. There were people who said ‘At last!’ and there were people who said ‘How dare she?’ […] I wanted to say: I’m not writing sociology, it just so happens this is what happened in my own family.”
Televising Literature
“Tom Stoppard isn’t shy about tackling literary giants. The British playwright has rewritten Hamlet for the stage and recently turned Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina into a Hollywood feature. But he struggled with a television adaptation of Ford Madox Ford’s sprawling modernist masterpiece Parade’s End.”
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And the Award for Lifetime Achievement Goes to
“His life’s work, and his stunning prose, teaches us to better understand political influence, American democracy, and the true power of biography.” The National Book Foundation just announced Robert Caro as this year’s recipient of the National Book Awards lifetime achievement medal. Definitely pair with this piece by our own Michael Bourne on Caro’s epic literary ambitions.
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Bonus Links
Simon & Schuster is planning to put out full-length audio editions of Ernest Hemingway’s novels. At the blog Okay Terrific, Steve figured out that Islands in the Stream will be read by Tommy Lee Jones and For Whom the Bell Tolls by Campbell Scott (and Steve is launching a campaign to get his own narrating gig.)Remember my post about book news RSS feeds? I’ve added the USA Today book news feed to the list. I use the book news feeds to generate the headlines that appear to the right. Any feeds that I’m missing? Let me know in the comments.Recently discovered The Publishing Contrarian via Books Inq. It’s full of all sorts of insidery book industry commentary.
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