Butler announces their spring schedule of visiting writers: Junot Diaz, Edwidge Danticat, Mark Strand, among others.

Holy cats. Now that's what I call a line-up.

Guardian's just put out its annual "Bad Sex Award" shortlist. "Honorees" include such literary luminaries as Philip Roth, Paul Theroux, and Amos Oz (is it any surprise that this list is filled with dudes?). Passages are posted here, along with reactions from some of the authors.

The authors are good sports, as is the tradition with this award, but some of that sportsmanship seems a little forced. Kind of like the writing in these weird passages. Especially Roth's. Yarg. Check it out here.

From Andrew Hudgins:

Always wanted to write like a post po-mo lit crit wordsmith?

Try this. Results guaranteed. Just insert required obfuscation as needed when thoughts run dry.

Where was this helpful tool when I was writing my thesis? I had to make my literary smokescreen the old-fashioned way: by hand.

Seriously, though, this tool is hilarious. Not only because I can't make heads or tails out of a phrase like, "The poetics of the gaze opens a space for the politics of agency," but because I'm pretty sure that exact sentence can be found in someone's dissertation.

We're going to do a little "day after" follow-up today. First, let me take you to Gawker, for some pics and chatter about the National Book Awards after-party.

"Look up, see that?" An editor at Reagan Arthur drunkenly smiled during the boozy, Bat Mitzvah-y after party held on the balcony overlooking the ballroom of the Cipriani Wall Street, and woozily pointed up to a perch some 25-feet above the dance floor. "See where the DJ is?" We stared above us. "Next year, it's not going to be a DJ. It's gonna be a Kindle." Brilliantly wasted drunkspeak that it was, she had a point. And she couldn't have been the only one thinking it.

Next, we'll swing by Barb Shoup's blog for a few thoughts on the recent Gathering of Writers.

It was a wonderful day. The foyer and galleries of the Indianapolis Art Center, where the conference was held, were lined with Day of the Dead altars, each one just waiting to be turned into a story, a poem, a memoir, a movie—maybe a mystery. Even the weather was inspiring; sunny and balmy, autumn’s last gift.

But my absolute favorite moment of the day was—

Okay, that's a cheesy cliffhanger, but so what? You can read the rest here.

(I'm glad somebody's doing these debriefings. I always mean to do stuff like this, but never quite get around to it.)

Booth #2 has arrived! We've got fiction from C.J. Hribal and Brian Buckbee, art by Mab Graves, a list from Jonathan Lethem, and more. And thanks to the design team at Nogginwerks, the issue is flat-out gorgeous. Goooorgeous. Check it out and let us know what you think, either by commenting on this thread, or joining the Booth group on Facebook.

(Thanks to all who came out for the launch party last night. I had a great time, and I hope you did, too.)

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McCann Bags National Book Award

The National Book Award winners for 2009 have been announced. The big prize for fiction went to Colum McCann for Let the Great World Spin. McCann was the highest profile name among the nominees, and his book which revolves around Philippe Petit’stightrope walk between World Trade Center towers in 1974, was generally seen as the favorite. More on the book: excerpt, review,Most Anticipated.

In this age of tycoons, fallen and otherwise, it is perhaps fitting that the non-fiction award went to The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles (excerpt). The Poetry award was won by Keith Waldrop for Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy(excerpt [pdf]). The winner in the Young People’s Literature category was Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose, a true story about a teenager who played a pivotal, but now forgotten role in the civil rights movement (excerpt).

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The Star's Book Page features a little Q&A with Susan Crandall of Noblesville.

Did you always want to be a writer?

I always loved to read, but I didn't start writing until I was 38. I was a dental hygienist. But when my sister revealed she was secretly writing, I edited some of her work, and we ended up writing several books together. None were published because we didn't know what we were doing. But I learned as I wrote and became addicted.

I felt a little behind the curve, but the more I talked to other writers, the more I learned that many didn't start until their late 30s.

At my day job, my co-workers think that since I like to read and write that I must be a grammar prig. They like to come into my office, sometimes with printed-out emails in hand, to complain about the way that other people talk or write. I guess they're hoping I'll roll my eyes in scorn, or shout something Shakespearian.

What my co-workers haven't figured out (after eight stinking years) is that most of the time I find these "mistakes" interesting and/or funny and not abhorrent like they're obviously hoping.

So when I go to work today, I know that someone will bring up the New Oxford American Dictionary's word of the year—unfriend—hoping that I'll say something stuffy and contemptuous about it. But I won't. In fact, I love it. It represents one of the things I love most about langauge, which is the fact that it's an ongoing invention. I love that, five years ago, if someone had run up to me and said, "Great tweet about those teabaggers!" I'd have had no idea what they were talking about.

Or maybe I just like "unfriend" because we've been using "un-" constructions around my house for years. To unlock the car, we say, "Unhonk it." And we almost never say "play" when we're dealing with the TiVo; it's just pause and unpause.

Now I just have to figure out how to unsnob my coworkers.

Booth launch party. Tomorrow night. Come. No excuses.

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New mini-interviews are up at Andrew's Book Club with Laura van den Berg and Alice Munro (one mini-er than the other).

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Tim O'Brien talks about tails, Batman, and good storytelling in one hell of an essay. I'm stashing this one in my files for future reference.

Obviously gender matters, in the world of books as elsewhere. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that a “Shopcraft as Soulcraft’, (“extols the virtues of how to do one thing really well) would not have gotten a huge amount of high-end critical attention or be in PW’s top ten if it was about sewing. Most men don’t even read books about women, or by women; but women read books by both sexes. That means that when it comes to prizes, and top-ten --or top-100—lists, books by men have an edge, because not only are they of interest to both sexes, they are reviewed and discussed as if they are of general interest (shop class?) and as if they connect naturally with the vast sea of literary tradition, which is mostly the work of men, while books by women tend to be perceived as its own small river, of interest mostly to the locals.

Well said. Really well said. I'm not even going to add anything.

Actually, can I tell you a quick, semi-related story? In his assessment at the end of my first semester as an MFA student, my teacher noted that I hadn't read any books by women (which was, for the record, actually not true; 1/3 of the books I'd read that semester were by women). My next teacher, eager to correct the balance, assigned me about fifteen books by female writers. Which was fine by me. Until I got the books and saw that most of them had a huge gold sticker on the front: OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB.

I cannot tell you how many snide comments I got whenever I read those books in public. Librarians sniggered at me. But I can tell you this: those stickers don't come off. Ever. Oprah uses superglue.

AP Reads Palin

The embargo on the Sarah Palin book was broken easily as the AP purchased an early copy yesterday. Among her claims that they cite:

"Palin bitterly details how she was prevented from delivering a concession speech on election night, how she'd been kept "bottled up" from reporters during the campaign and prevented in many ways from just being herself. She also contends she was prepped to give non-answers during her debate with Joe Biden."

She calls Katie Couric "badgering" and "contends the anchor chose 'gotcha' moments while leaving the candidate's more substantive remarks on the cutting room floor."

Also, "Palin comes across as particularly upset about being stuck with $50,000 in legal bills that she says were directly related to the legal vetting process for the VP slot. She says nobody ever informed her that she would have to personally take care of expenses related to the selection process, and jokes that if she'd known she was going to get stuck with the bill, she would have given shorter responses."

You know what's interesting and more than a little scary about this? Her remark about being "bottled up" indicates that the Sarah Palin Crazy Train 2008 Edition was, like, the mild version. That her "death panel" remarks were basically a throat-clearing prelude for the lunacy that is yet to come. So what happens (geez, I hesitate to ask) when she gets out of that bottle?

My prediction? Right after she gives a speech declaring that health care is only necessary for inferior life forms, she'll eat a hamster on live TV. That's right: SHE'S A LIZARD. (V is based on a real story, isn't it?)

On a more serious note, is this a book, or a phone call from your slightly tipsy aunt, calling to bitch about her job?

Some writers agonize when they're not writing. Other writers apparently look at it like a furlough. Take Woody Holton, for example, the author of "Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution," which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2007. In this interview with Paper Cuts, he sounds almost giddy about not writing.

What are you working on now?

Nothing! For the first time in more than 20 years, my closest companions no longer include a literary abstraction. And there’s no pressure to find one, since I have a rewarding day job teaching at the University of Richmond.

Given the tendency of books to take over every inch of unfortified territory (in the brain, the schedule and everything else), I’m thrilled to have expelled the last of the occupying forces. Am I lonely, too? Yes, but not very. My daughter Beverly is 3 and my son Henry is not yet 1, so it will be a long while before they would rather have the money I could make them writing than the Daddy time that writing would consume. As for me, my compulsion to write was always attached to a particular project, and it disappeared the moment I sent off the last edits to “Abigail Adams.” At least for now.

I tend to be pretty miserable if I miss even a single writing session, but his answer makes me wonder if little fallow periods might actually be good. And healthy. And maybe even, in the long run, good for my writing.

On the other hand, a fallow period might turn into a long, dry spell that will never, ever end, leaving me tearing out my hair and screaming, "What have I done? WHAT HAVE I DONE?"

I've really done a piss-poor job of letting people know about the Ann Katz Festival of Books. It's one of the biggest (maybe THE biggest?) book festivals in the city, and it's going on now. Sorry, Ann Katz-ers. I'll do better next year.

Here are some deetz:

Through Nov. 21
JCC

10 authors. 2 films. An art exhibition. Children's events and a book sale. Hear presentations by nationally renowned authors and journalists. Q&A and book signing at all author events. For a complete schedule, visit www.JCCindy.org.

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Aaaaaand just a reminder that Nick Flynn will be reading at 7:30 tonight at Butler (at the Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall, to be precise). Nick is the author of the exquisitely-titled Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, among other works.

Just a reminder that Nancy Kriplen is speaking tonight at the Art Center Library (more details in the Lit Events Calendar link to your right). Her talk is called "Biographers & Worms: Thoughts on the Art of Biography." This is a FREE event, brought to you by the good people at the Clowes Foundation and the Marion County Public Library.
Nancy Kriplen is the author of two biographies, Dwight Davis: The Man and The Cup and The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur-Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. She is currently working on the world's first biography of a blog: BookChoy: Fountain of Snark. The recipient of a 2010 Lilly Endowment Creative Renewal Fellowship, Kriplen was formerly on the staffs of Time Magazine and Scripps Howard's Indianapolis Times. She has also written for the New York Times, Smithsonian, Opera News, American History Illustrated, Saveur and other publications. The Eccentric Billionaire was named one of the Best Business Books of 2008 by USA Today.*

*Bio has been slightly fictionalized.

Attention, readers! Do you enjoy reading? Do you like money? What if you could read your way to riches?!?!? Hold onto your socks because . . . IT'S JUST THAT EASY!

Have you ever been reading a book by your favorite author and wished you could make some of the money that they’re making? It’s not impossible. You can get in on some of the money generated from their books by blogging on the coat tails of their success.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED
You will need a copy of your favorite author’s most recent book and you will need computer access.

STEP 1:
Go to Amazon.com and sign up for their affilitate’s program. Look for your favorite author’s most recent book and be sure that you have read a copy of it. If not, buy a copy.

Was this written by the same people who do the "Tailgate-tested, Tailgate-approved" commercials?

By the way, what's an "affilitate?"

Could the Indy Star's book page be any worse? The majority of their scant content is on loan from AP, and what little stuff they generate on their own is mostly embarrassing. Take this cut from an "interview" with Audrey Niffenegger entitled "New Book Puts Novelist in Spirit of Things":

Q: "What is your favorite part of writing? Least favorite?"

A: I love wandering around with the book in my head, listening to the characters talking to each other, trying to construct the plot. . . . My least favorite thing is to spend hours in my chair, staring at the computer screen, trying to make it work when it does not want to.

1. That's one of the two classic questions (along with "Where do you get your ideas?") asked by an "aspiring writer" who is attending his "very first reading ever!"

2. That question comprised the entirety of the section of the interview called "On Her Craft."

Look, I know that BookChoy is amateur hour, but hey, we actually try. And I'd like to think we embarrass ourselves less than 60% of the time, which is approximately 85% lower than the Star's rate. What I propose is a hostile takeover. I'm going to need a pirate, a lawyer, and, apparently, someone who can do math. WHO'S WITH ME?

(chirp, chirp)

(tumbleweed kicking past)

I'm could justify posting the following by claiming that it's tangentially related to literature because it's from the God's Politics blog, which was engendered by the book God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get it by Jim Wallis. But the truth is that these words seem sensible to me, and whenever I heard sensible words about politics from someone who isn't a shill for one side or the other, I want to share them. Here's a meaty cut from the blog post about the elections the other day.

"In fact, I think as people continue to see so much of politics as usual in this town – partisan bickering and big money buying votes — they are increasingly likely to vote against whatever represents the old politics for them. Obama campaign rallies in Virginia and New Jersey were not enough to convince the people there that the candidate with a “D” beside the name would be the best choice for their state. New York’s 23^rd District went to a Democrat for the first time since the Civil War despite support for the Conservative, including an aggressive cable news campaign from Glenn Beck, a radio campaign from Rush Limbaugh and a visit from Sarah Palin. But high profile visits and endorsements from right wing luminaries and Republican presidential hopefuls were not enough to win a Congressional seat in one of the most conservative districts in New York state. Mayor Bloomberg is estimated to have spent over $100 million during the campaign (I saw it broken down to $170 per voter!) to win by just five points while his nearest challenger only spent one-tenth of that amount. Democrat Jon Corzine spent 25 million of his own dollars to outspend the Republican candidate in New Jersey, but it wasn’t enough to counter the popular reaction to another Wall Street tycoon wanting to keep buying political power.

I think people are tired of the power of money and the grip of power in politics. After 30 years in Washington, D.C., I know I’m tired of seeing the kind of influence money has in politics and was glad to see it resisted in several of the election results. I am sick of hearing the rants and raves of talk show hosts and demagoguery in politics, and the people of New York’s 23^rd District showed quite clearly that they were not going to be steamrolled by it. One year ago, the majority of the people in this country voted for “a change they could believe in,” and many are still waiting.

The importance and impact of a very few elections this week have already been greatly exaggerated. But the signs of discontent go far beyond the preference for one party over another; they indicate a deeper rejection of old politics. That discontent will soon turn into more cynical withdrawal unless people begin to see a “new politics” worth their energy and involvement. But that new politics will never exist if we simply wait for it to come from Washington; we must create it and help it grow by the social movements we build. And the voters who turned out in Virginia and New Jersey just demonstrated that they aren’t convinced yet that a new politics is coming from Washington, D.C."

Nick Flynn on November 11th at 7:30 at Butler

Another Bullshit Night in Suck City

The Writers’ Center of Indiana Presents:

Biographers and Worms: Thoughts on the Art of Biography

Speaker:

Nancy Kriplen

Tuesday, November 10

7 p.m.

Indianapolis Art Center Library

820 E. 67^th Street.

Indianapolis, Indiana

FREE

Nancy Kriplen is the author of two biographies, Dwight Davis: The Man and The Cup and The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur—Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary. The recipient of a 2009-2010 Lilly Endowment Creative Renewal Fellowship, Kriplen was formerly on the staffs of Time Magazine and Scripps Howard's Indianapolis Times. She has also written for the New York Times, Smithsonian, Opera News, American History Illustrated, Saveur and other publications. The Eccentric Billionaire was named one of the Best Business Books of 2008 by USA Today.

Be a Better Writer

Clowes Craft Lectures Series

Made possible by a grant form the Allen Whitehill Clowes Foundation, Inc.

Co-sponsored by the Indianapolis Art Center

AWP and Poets & Writers Magazine get in a scuffle about MFA rankings. Why am I imagining the fight scene from West Side Story?

Anyway, P&W came out with what might be the first comprehensive ranking of MFA programs since the infamous U.S. News & World report list of 1997 (I do not count the half-ass attempt by the Atlantic Monthly in 2007). AWP fired back with a letter pointing out the flaws in the new ranking, while gently suggesting its own program guides to interested parties.

This fight isn't really about methodology. It isn't even really about the oddness of assessing fine arts programs quantitatively. It's about control, and power, and who gets to say what about the MFA industry.

Because it is an industry, one that is growing in size and monetary value. For years, AWP has been (more or less) the sole voice, the source of information and power, the authority for these programs. A monopoly of sorts. But as MFA-world sprawls and begins to become more (gasp) mainstream, maintaining this control will only become harder.

Not that they'll give it up easily. This letter to P&W is the literary equivalent of a growl. Back the truck up. This is my turf.

File this post under "blatant self-promotion." The good folks at Ninth Letter, the lit mag for the University of Illinois, interviewed me for their blog. Check it out to learn about my secret past as a throat-singing crazy driver who only wanted to be invisible.

Well, it's November, which means that it's National Novel Writing Month, or, as it's known by the hipsters: NaNoWriMo. It's kind of a lightning rod of an exercise. People are either wild about it, or hold it in total disdain. I think there's a certain real worth to it, but it's not what most people might think.

You're not going to get a publishable novel out of it. You're not. So just let that belief -- and all the pressure that comes with it -- go. But if you can get a whole awful novel out of it, that's worth a lot, I think. The knowledge that you can complete a novel will allow you to start another one. And more than that: it will allow you to complete another one.

I guess what I'm saying is that it's an exercise in proving something to yourself. If you go into NaNoWriMo thinking that you'll write this awful book so that you can write a better one, you'll be in good shape.

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New picks up at Andrew's Book Club, including a debut by star-of-the-journals Laura van den Berg, and someone named Alice Munro. Munro? What kind of a name is that? Good luck making a career with that name, lady.

Ever wondered what it’s like to publish your first novel? Or write a great sex scene? Pen a perfect mystery? Find out this Saturday at the 2009 Gathering of Writers, where your most burning questions will be answered by Indiana’s best writers.

For a full description of panels and sessions, click here. Or for just a taste, feast on this:

Why You Should NEVER Say: I Want to Write a YA Novel Because it’s Easier than Writing a "Regular" Novel with Margaret McMullan

What makes a Young Adult novel a Young Adult novel? Is it easier to write? We'll cover major points every YA writer should consider: target audience, structure, character, setting, dialogue, and point of view. We'll talk about research, how to come up with ideas, and how to keep coming up with more. We’ll talk about how you will never ever condescend to your young readers. Our goal is to recharge, rev up, and get you started on young adult novels. Attendees will leave brimming with enthusiasm and ideas.

What’s Form For? with Roger Mitchell

You can’t have a discussion about poetry without raising the issue of form. But what is it? And, perhaps more interestingly, why is it? The narrow definition calls for meter and/or rhyme. A broader and more

realistic definition involves other aspects of language than those hallowed two. Poetry is the most formal of the written arts, relying as it does more on the actual features of language than on narrative or argument. Finally, form presents you its other option, breaking it, though remember what Eliot said: “No vers is libre to the person who

wishes to write well.” A handout with several examples will hopefully prompt discussion of these endlessly discussable matters.

Adapting Short Fiction into Screenplays with Andrew Scott

Most short stories can be turned into screenplays, and the process of crafting a screenplay can teach fiction writers a lot about their story’s plot, characters, dialogue, and structure. This session is ideal for writers new to screenwriting. We’ll cover the basics of writing for the screen, including tips about mining the short story for scenes, how to think (and write) with the visual in mind, and more.

Satisfy your writerly hunger, with all of this, plus lunch! This Saturday, November 7, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Indianapolis Art Center, 820 E 67th St, Indianapolis. Registration is $50 for WCI members, $100 for general public. Register here or call the Center at 317-255-0710.

(promo courtesy of Victoria Barrett)

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I just wanted to share a cut from an article by Gordon Haber in Forward called Six Takes on God. After reading six new God-related books, he summarized them for his readers, but the most interesting part of the article comes near the end, when he offers more of his own thoughts.

Still, whatever their faults, these books will teach you much about religion, if not so much about God. (Schroeder’s book teaches that Jews, too, can be dumb enough to swallow Intelligent Design.) But I’m not so concerned if I remain confused about the nature of God. Unlike fundamentalists or atheists, I can live with a certain amount of confusion. There is spiritual sustenance in food for thought. And, as I mentioned, we should be encouraged to see that smart people are articulating alternatives to atheism and fundamentalism.

Haber didn't italicize that sentence; I did, because it really struck me. Not only for how he finds the seam that connects atheists and fundies (also, they all like to shout contemptuously), but for the link it makes, at least in my mind, between believers and poets. I'm thinking now of Keats' negative capability. Man, says Keats, should be "capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact & reason."