Novelist, Richard Lewis has a great new blog. Go on and check it out: Reading James Joyce’s ULYSSES for the first time.

In the cover blurbs, the narrator of M. J. Hyland’s debut novel, How Light Gets In, is compared to Holden Caulfield. And surely there are some nods to Cather in the Rye but one might also compare it to The Sterile Cuckoo, The Bell Jar, The Moviegoer or any number of books (I would even argue that it shares similar themes to Anne of … Read More

Oh bother. This news–Voices behind Tigger, Piglet die–has left me very sad. I love the old Winnie the Pooh (not those crappy ones they pump out now). And Piglet was one of my favorite characters.

Hearty (and heartfelt!) congratulations to Jordan Rosenfeld, who is has completed her MFA at Bennington. Way to go, Jordan!

Ordinary Springs, Florida is anything but ordinary. There are mysteries there. There is murder and betrayal. There are children abandoned and husbands gone mad. Ordinary Springs is pure Southern Gothic and above and beyond anything, it is also pure American small town. Where secrets don’t stay secrets forever and where rumors run the lives of its citizens. Into this town is born Dory Gamble. … Read More

Reading Barbara Sutton’s Flannery O’Connor award winning collection, The Send-Away Girl, is something akin to falling in love. At first, you might wonder about your attraction. Isn’t this voice sort of angry, strident? Should I really be liking these as much as I am? Hey, wait, this is not anger, this is not stridency. This is humor. This is intelligence. This is, above all … Read More

Xerox Aspiring Authors Contest

Hmmmm… While this is certainly a nice prize it offers no vehicle for distribution, so it’s essentially a chance to have your book published via POD, which I’m totally fine with but I don’t know that “a new literary career” is being “launched” so much as a new POD venue is being launched. In addition, there is no mention of who is judging this … Read More Xerox Aspiring Authors Contest

Now here’s something you don’t get to read every day, an account of being not-photographed by a famous photographer. I was sucked in from the first word–On Not Being Photographed by Diane Arbus: In the gallery, I watch other people look at the photos and try to imagine my picture. I am 15 years old. But do I look older? I thought I did. … Read More

Today is my favorite day of the year–Summer Solstice.

Would you care for a piece of toast?

Think this is an excellent, cynical take on the state of Hollywood–The age of celebrity: A little squirt (Or: Why do we all hate Tom Cruise?): Money is, naturally, the back story to everything. It is almost impossible, in fact, not to consider the Cruise-Holmes romance and the Pitt-Jolie smooch rumours without also considering the fact that Hollywood is suffering from its roughest period … Read More

Without a doubt, Anne of Green Gables was one of my favorite childhood books. It is not surprising to me, then, that a first edition of the book was auctioned for $24,000 on Friday.