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9/11 Too 'Meaningless' to Inspire Great Novels

Because 'life, not death, is the novelist's subject': Laura Miller

(Newser) - Ten years later, and still no great 9/11 novels? Yes, because "at its heart, 9/11 was meaningless," writes Laura Miller at Salon . "I realize that sounds inflammatory, but hear me out." A novelist explores "the winding and unwinding of long strands of cause and effect,...

Martinis, Vinegar: Famed Writers' Favorite Snacks

Authors look to everything from sherry to popsicles for inspiration

(Newser) - Some of history's greatest writers have relied on "food for thought." For Truman Capote, a daily regimen of coffee, tea, sherry, and martinis was his path to creative greatness. Others kept it simpler: Marcel Proust relied on espresso, while Jesus Land author Julia Scheeres swears by the...

Philip Roth Wins Man Booker International Prize
Philip Roth Wins Man Booker Prize
UPDATED
May 18, 2011 9:38 AM CDT

Philip Roth Wins Man Booker Prize

...but one member of the 3-person judging panel quits in protest

(Newser) - Philip Roth, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American author of the 1960s cultural touchstone Portnoy's Complaint and more than two dozen other novels, was named today as the winner of the Man Booker International Prize for fiction. Roth beat 12 other short-listed authors—including Britain's John le Carre, Australia's...

Jo Nesbo: Is He the 'Next Stieg Larsson' for the Publishing World?
 The Next Stieg Larsson?
May 7, 2011 1:41 PM CDT

The Next Stieg Larsson?

Maybe, but Norway's Jo Nesbo actually came first

(Newser) - Get ready to hear three names a lot: Jo Nesbo, Harry Hole, and Stieg Larsson. Nesbo is a Norwegian crime novelist ridiculously popular in his homeland, Hole is his alcoholic detective protagonist, and Larsson, of course, is the late Scandinavian author whose Dragon Tattoo trilogy has the publishing world salivating...

New Authors Will Continue Parker’s Crime Novels

Spenser, Jesse Stone live on despite death of Robert B. Parker

(Newser) - The two most famous creations of late crime novelist Robert B. Parker will live on. His estate will allow two writers to continue the Spenser and Jesse Stone novels, reports Publishers Weekly . Michael Brandman will take over the Spenser series, which debuted in 1974 and now number 39. Ace Atkins...

'Jewish Jane Austen' Wins Booker Prize

Howard Jacobson's comic novel is 'profound,' 'wise'

(Newser) - The writer who once called the Man Booker Prize an "absolute abomination" was last night awarded the prize for his 11th novel, The Finkler Question. Howard Jacobson, who calls himself "the Jewish Jane Austen," was “truly flabbergasted” by the honor, reports the Telegraph . “I was...

Oprah Mends Fences With Novelist Who Dissed Her
 Oprah Mends Fences With 
 Novelist Who Dissed Her 
book club pick
Sep 16, 2010 10:52 AM CDT

Oprah Mends Fences With Novelist Who Dissed Her

Jonathan Franzen's 'Freedom' lands coveted book club slot

(Newser) - Nine years after Oprah Winfrey chose Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections for her book club, and the "uncomfortable" novelist talked his way out of appearing on her show, he's getting another chance, reports the New York Post . The media magnate's people won't confirm the Oprah's Book Club selection—likely the...

How to Write a Crappy Nicholas Sparks Novel

They're not as unique as he'd like you to think

(Newser) - Nicholas Sparks isn’t a romance novelist, OK? He writes fiction, thank you very much, and he’s made it clear in various interviews that he thinks he’s one of a kind. But on the off chance you’d like to write your very own Nicholas Sparks romance novel—...

'Lost' Man Booker Prize From 1970 to Be Awarded

Rule change omitted all books published in 1970

(Newser) - In 1970, the Man Booker Prize went to a book published in 1969, but the rules changed in 1971 and the coveted prize was awarded to a book published that year—meaning no 1970 novel scored a Booker. Organizers plan to right the perceived wrong by awarding the Lost Man...

Cormac McCarthy Gets New (Old) Typewriter

 Cormac McCarthy Gets 
 New (Old) Typewriter 
5M words later
Dec 2, 2009 11:16 AM CST

Cormac McCarthy Gets New (Old) Typewriter

50-year-old Olivetti may fetch $20K at auction

(Newser) - Cormac McCarthy has typed his last on the ancient Olivetti on which he's pounded out more than 5 million words since 1963, and the battered machine is now up for auction. The author of No Country for Old Men and The Road picked up the typewriter at a pawn shop...

German Novelist Herta Mueller Wins Nobel for Literature

Romanian-born writer explores themes of exile, dictatorship

(Newser) - The Nobel Prize in literature was awarded today to Herta Mueller, a Romanian-born German novelist and poet whose work has explored the brutality of life under the Ceausescu dictatorship. Deprived of her job and threatened by the regime, she fled to Germany in 1987. The Land of Green Plums, published...

Gore Vidal: Hillary Would've Been the Better Prez

Onetime supporter bashes Obama, who needs more of Lincoln's 'chill'

(Newser) - Gore Vidal is 83 and uses a wheelchair now, but the legendary American writer hasn't lost any of his strong opinions—not least on Barack Obama, who is doing "dreadfully" and has "f---ed up" health reform. Vidal supported Obama after originally backing Hillary Clinton, but now thinks...

Danielle Steel Aide 'Fesses to $400K Ripoff

Author claims assistant stole $2.7M

(Newser) - A long-time assistant has pleaded guilty to embezzling $400,000 from best-selling romance queen Danielle Steel. Kristy Watts admitted depositing checks for Steel into her own bank account and using the author's credit card points to obtain gifts and airline tickets. Steel, who has written 76 best-selling novels, claims Watts...

Modern Novels' Shift: We Can Understand Them

Literary writers are re-embracing idea of a good plot

(Newser) - The 21st-century novel is being reacquainted with an old friend: the plot. Today's best writers are abandoning the notion that literary novels need to be all but impenetrable to readers without advanced degrees, writes Lev Grossman in the Wall Street Journal. "The revolution is under way," he says....

Biography Bares Lord of the Flies Author's Demons

Biographer sheds light on unseen memoirs

(Newser) - In an unpublished autobiography, the author of Lord of the Flies described his attempted rape of a 15-year-old when he was about 18, the Times of London reports. While walking with the girl, he “felt sure she wanted heavy sex, as this was visibly written on her pert, ripe...

'Cult' Writer JG Ballard Dead at 78

(Newser) - British author JG Ballard died this morning "with great sadness" after many years of poor health, his agent said today. The 78-year-old novelist and short story writer was most famous for his semi-autobiographical book Empire of the Sun, later made into a film by Steven Spielberg, and his controversial...

Updike: An Author 'Hoping to Talk to America'
 Updike: An Author 
 'Hoping to Talk to America' 
APPRECIATION
Jan 27, 2009 3:44 PM CST

Updike: An Author 'Hoping to Talk to America'

Superlatives hardly lacking in wake of writer's death at 76

(Newser) - John Updike, who died today at 76, was many things: Bob Ryan, in the Boston Globe, calls him the author of the “most spellbinding essay ever written about baseball.” For Carolyn Kellogg, in the Los Angeles Times, the first line of his story A&P displays a “...

Chick Lit, Meet Manfiction
 Chick Lit, Meet Manfiction 
OPINION
Oct 13, 2008 12:57 PM CDT

Chick Lit, Meet Manfiction

Tough-guy novels offer escapism, entertainment

(Newser) - With women taking the bestseller charts by storm, publishers may consider the male reading audience negligible, but that’s far from the case, writes Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly. In fact, men have their own form of chick lit—he calls it “manfiction”—which features the male equivalent...

Rodanthe Author Still Loves Himself
 Rodanthe 
 Author Still 
 Loves Himself 
glossies
Oct 3, 2008 7:11 PM CDT

Rodanthe Author Still Loves Himself

(Newser) - Nicholas Sparks may run low on creative gas, but that only lasts for a minute or two. The multimillionaire author of The Notebook and Nights in Rodanthe works out for nearly 3 hours a day before writing 2,000 words and coaching track at his son's school. ''I'm efficient,"...

Wallace Kept Up 'Debate Inside His Head'

Infinite Jest author was an 'astute observer' and 'prose magician'

(Newser) - David Foster Wallace was remembered today as a complex novelist who engaged in layer upon layer of self-examination. The author of Infinite Jest "wrote about the maddening impossibility of scrutinizing yourself without also scrutinizing yourself scrutinizing yourself and so on," Laura Miller writes in Salon. Wallace's suicide remains...

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