Michael's Chabon's "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" has become the first book ever to be nominated for the Nebula, Edgar, and the Hugo awards.

An appraisal of where one reporter places Philip K. Dick among the literary/writerly pantheon.

Quoted: Of all American writers, none have got the genre-hack-to-hidden-genius treatment quite so fully as Philip K. Dick, the California-raised and based science-fiction writer who, beginning in the nineteen-fifties, wrote thirty-six speed-fuelled novels, went crazy in the early seventies, and died in 1982, only fifty-three. His reputation has risen through the two parallel operations that genre writers get when they get big. First, he has become a prime inspiration for the movies, becoming for contemporary science-fiction and fantasy movies what Raymond Chandler was for film noir: at least eight feature films, including “Total Recall,” “Minority Report,” “A Scanner Darkly,” and, most memorably, Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner,” have been adapted from Dick’s books, and even more—from Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” to the “Matrix” series—owe a defining debt to his mixture of mordant comedy and wild metaphysics.

Quoted: Literary feuds don't come more poisonous than the 30-year stand-off that's divided those giants of Latin American letters, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa. And the real reason it all began is only now emerging. Paul Vallely reports

Author Jonathan Lethem has decided to option his most recent book to a filmmaker with some interesting terms. He is requesting that the filmmaker relinquish all rights five years from the movie release so that others may produce derivative work without fear of reprisal.

Quoted: Lately I’ve become fitful about some of the typical ways art is commodified. Despite making my living (mostly) by licensing my own copyrights, I found myself questioning some of the particular ways such rights are transacted, and even some of the premises underlying what’s called intellectual property. I read a lot of Lawrence Lessig and Siva Vaidhyanathan, who convinced me that technological progress – and globalization – made this a particularly contemporary issue. I also read Lewis Hyde’s The Gift, which persuaded me, paradoxically, that these issues are eternal ones, deeply embedded in the impulse to make any kind of art in the first place. I came away with the sense that artists ought to engage these questions directly, rather than leaving it entirely for corporations (on one side) and public advocates (on the other) to hash out. I also realized that sometimes giving things away – things that are usually seen to have an important and intrinsic ‘value’, like a film option – already felt like a meaningful part of what I do. I wanted to do more of it.

I finally found a place that had the other Thomas Pynchon appearance from the Simpsons. I'd been looking for this one for a little while. It's pretty funny if you know anything about the reclusive author.

Hey everyone! I just posted my first author review at The Puget News.

The author is Ryan Boudinot and I think he had some pretty funny and some pretty intriguing responses to my questions. Give it a look and leave me some comments on the blog. Please!

Quoted: “The Puget News” is proud to introduce our first author interview! Ryan Boudinot, author of “The Littlest Hitler” was gracious enough to talk about his darkly comical collection of short stories, channel a little Yoda, and tell me which dead people he’d like to kick it with.

I just finished a quite wonderful book by Elliot Perlman this week and I'm trying to learn some more about him. This webpage at the BBC is a bit outdated (in that it states he is working on the novel I just finished reading) but I really love this quote he gives to aspiring novelists:

Quoted: "There is a tendency in the middle of the writing of a novel for the writer to feel adrift, lost floating aimlessly in a rough uncharted ocean of words. You are too far from the beginning to feel the enthusiasm that set you on your way all those words ago and too far from the end to see the land of your completed tale where you may rest finally.

Quoted: There are so many obstacles between you and your completed manuscript. Do not let this sense of aimlessness stop you from finishing. From my own limited experience, and of the many writers to whom I have spoken, I am convinced that this feeling is normal. While feeling it is no guarantee that your novel will be artistically, critically or commercially successful, neither is it a sure sign of failure.

Quoted: When this feeling is engulfing you, remember the novels that have had the biggest effect on you as a reader. Look at those novels. Take them from your shelves. Flick through their pages. Remember the characters, settings, plots. Remember how they have made you feel. Perhaps the manuscript on which you drift aimlessly now will come to be such a book for people you have never met. Dwell on this, that this could happen. Take a deep breath and go back to your page. Perhaps there is someone who needs you to tell this story."

I posted an entry about local writer Ryan Boudinot. Check it out!

Quoted: Ryan Boudinot began the evening by pointing by pointing out a cartoon representation of himself that someone at “The Stranger” had drawn to accompany a short piece he’d written for this week’s issue. Laughing at the image in the article, he held up a separate book with Kim Jong-Il’s famous visage smiling on the cover, noting the startling likeness. “What an unfortunate representation,” was all I could think. He really looks nothing like the dictator. At least he can laugh at himself and his fledgling fame.

A 50 minute long segment with acclaimed Indian author Arundhati Roy. Audio, video, and transcripts, all available for free.