Author: Scott McKenzie

National Book Award Winners

The Associated Press is reporting that Denis Johnson won the National Book Award for Tree of Smoke earlier this evening. Sherman Alexie, Tim Weiner, and Robert Hass were other winners.

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Lots of People Interested in Living Biblically

  More than a hundred people showed up last night on a cloudy evening to reading/signing with A.J. Jacobs. Maybe it was in hope that his famous biblical beard had returned. Jacobs turned out to be clean-shaven, but put on a great show. He read from his newest book The Year of Living Biblically: One…

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Henkin Takes over TEV

Even on a normal day, The Elegant Variation is one of the best literary blogs around. But yesterday was particularly interesting because Joshua Henkin was guest-blogging while Mark was away from his usual TEV desk. Henkin, author of the well-received Matrimony: A Novel, covered a tremendous amount of ground in a single day of blogging.…

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RIP Norman Mailer

Norman Mailer passed away early Saturday morning at the age of 84. I’m afraid I must admit that I never read a single word of Norman Mailer’s work. It’s one of my darkest bookish secrets, but oh well. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t well-aware of the massive swath he cut in American literature. Over at…

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Protecting Whales

Here’s an interesting article about Denver-based author Peter Heller and his work with a community of people who strive to save whales from slaughter.

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