"All I have is intense curiosity."

I am eating up this Paris Review interview with Gay Talese. He works in a bunker (former wine cellar) in his house and writes longhand before typing on a typewriter before transferring his later draft to computer. He takes notes on cardboard shirtboards, like you might find at a drycleaners. Oh, and he's been hailed for writing one of the greatest magazine stories ever.

Mmm, delicious books

Newberry Library Book Fair this weekend. Any takers?

Are you a literary lightweight?

Take this quiz from the BBC magazine to test your literary knowledge. It's a random sample from the General Certificate of Secondary Education, which is taken by 15- and 16-year-olds in the UK. I did... much worse than I would have liked.

In which I suggest things you read online:

Useful:
Brevity's "Craft Essays"
in which we read short essays on the craft of nonfiction writing

Enlightening:
Papercuts Blog "Living with Music" Series
in which authors discuss their current playlists, often made of eclectic choices

Moving:
Pacing the Panic Room Blog
in which a dad-to-be (now a new dad) writes "candidly and vividly about the building of (his) family"

Screamin' seafaring tale wins bad writing contest

Thanks to the Washington Post and the AP, which keep me up to date on each year's Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

This year's winner:
Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the "Ellie May," a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests.

Printers Row Lit Fest this weekend!

From the Trib:

 

Join the Chicago Tribune for the Midwest's largest literary event! This outdoor festival offers the opportunity to hear authors speak and debate their works. It also features unique booksellers, poetry readings, exhibitors, kids activities, cooking demos, wine tastings, and much more. Hours are from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on June 6-7.

My top picks (I wish that I could get to these, but I'm not sure if it'll happen): Neil Gaiman and Elmore Leonard. Columnist Leonard Pitts is in a panel discussion, which could be good. And Amy Dickinson (of the Ask Amy column) will be chatting about her book. And music critic Greg Kot is on the schedule too. Oh, also: Harvey Pekar and Paul Buhle will be talking about graphic novels. 

Schedule, map and more here. 

A writer's cure for writer's block

There's a little thing I do when I can't write: When I'm feeling sleepy, when my head is in a fog, I reach across my desk, digging under the piles of unanswered mail, to unearth my copy of Herzog by Saul Bellow. And then I open the book — anywhere— and read a paragraph.

From Jeffrey Eugenides on NPR 

hey, so anyway...

this is going on this week:
pilcrow lit fest (the calendar!)

Justifying the life of fiction writers...

From novels to storytelling to television, fiction has a place in everyone's lives. For those of us who read and write for pleasure, we argue that we are educated, entertained and connected through works of fiction. But "The Evolutionary Argument for Dr. Seuss" on Salon highlights how important fiction is. 

From the article: The latest and most intriguing effort to understand fiction is often called Darwinian literary criticism, although Brian Boyd, an English professor at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and the author of "On the Origin of Stories," a new book offering an overview and defense of the field, prefers the term "evocriticism."

I have a hard time tying evolutionary biology into enjoyment of fiction. But part of me loves the idea that there's a scientific way to prove that writing, reading, watching tv, enjoying movies, etc. is good for us as individuals, good for society and good for the human race. It's a nice thought.  

Oprah's apology

Does James Frey deserve an apology? If Oprah says so, it must be true.