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.
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…
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.…
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…