True crime is more than a recent podcast trend—just take a look at Casey Cep’s forthcoming Furious Hours. The book tells the tale of Harper Lee’s journey to Alexander City, Ala., in the 1970s to write about a gruesome murder that was staged to look like a car accident. A video produced by Dustin Stephens from CBS recounts the famous author’s attempt to learn more about the crime, with “Lee [deciding] she was going to try her hand at crime writing, showing up at the two-day trial.”
Harper Lee’s Unsolved Mystery
Writing Workshops LA: The Conference
Writing Workshops LA – which was founded by our own Edan Lepucki – is hosting “The Conference” on June 28 of this year, and the day-long event will consist of “educational and thoughtful panel discussions as well as smaller, in-depth presentations and workshops aimed at informing and inspiring every attendee.” Presenters will include award-winning literary agents, editors, and writers including Joanna Rakoff, Adam Wilson, David L. Ulin, Counterpoint’s Dan Smetanka, and Daniel Gumbiner of McSweeney’s. Don’t miss your chance to sign up for the early bird special before April 15th – the first 40 attendees will also get an invitation to a literary pub quiz event the night before.
●
●
The Ghost of Playboy’s Literary Past
“We editors told ourselves the naked women were merely carnival barkers: they got an audience into the tent, but we kept them with the content.” In the Guardian, Playboy‘s former fiction editor Amy Grace Loyd reveals what it was like to work at the magazine and how she commissioned work from writers like Donna Tartt, Margaret Atwood, and Junot Díaz. Read our review of Loyd’s debut novel, The Affairs of Others.
On the UC Press’s E-Books Collection
The University of California Press is updating its e-books collection, adding new titles all the time, and allowing the general public to access over 770 titles published between 1982 and 2004. The full collection can be found over here, and Open Culture highlights some of the gems within the treasure trove.
On Children’s Lit
●
●
Color It Away
Need to relax? Check out an adult coloring book. Sales have skyrocketed in the past two years. Coloring books could stifle creativity instead of helping it grow, though.
●
●
Big Bird Is Still Employed
Still mourning the end of 2012 Election jokes? The Poetry Foundation is here to help with “Binders Full of Poems by Women.”
●
●