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A volume of Liu Xiaobo's writing will be published in English for the first time; the World Book Night initiative launches in Ireland and the U.K.; the most read man in the world; Paul Thomas Anderson may adapt Pynchon's Inherent Vice; and other news.
Hanukkah stories from NPR; The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo gets a stage adaptation in Denmark; information overload dates back to Gutenberg; Cape Town launches a literary festival; and other news.
Google Editions may launch before New Year's; God is set to publish a memoir with Simon & Schuster; an Australian author sues a critic over a negative review; buy the name of a fictional character in your favorite author's next book; and other news.
James Franco will host the Oscars with Anne Hathaway; the winner of the Bad Sex in Fiction Award; Penguin brings its classics to Arabic-speaking countries; Arundhati Roy faces more controversy in India; and other news.
One hundred notable books of 2010 from the New York Times; the AAWW starts a New York City neighborhood blog; MFA debates—Victorian and contemporary; the love letters of Vladimir Nabokov; and other news.
Sex advice from poets; Harry Potter's fictional train platform, 9 3/4, appears at a New York City subway station; the Kindle versus the Color Nook; the current state of e-readers in Africa; and other news.
Carol Ann Duffy is set to pen a royal wedding poem; Mark Twain's autobiography is selling so fast printers can't keep up; V. S. Naipaul announces plan to call it quits; Chinua Achebe makes a rare public appearance tonight in England; and other news.
Scribd launches a global literacy campaign; the Chinese government refuses to allow any of Liu Xiaobo's relatives to collect his Nobel Peace Prize; the Seattle school board may ban Huxley's Brave New World; the bad sex award short list; and other news.
The winners of the National Book Award, including a punk rocker, a poet influenced by music and memory, and a dark horse indie press author, were announced last night at a ceremony in New York City. Terrance Hayes won in poetry for Lighthead (Penguin); Jaimy Gordon won in fiction for her horseracing novel, Lord of Misrule, published by independent publisher McPherson; and Patti Smith won in nonfiction for Just Kids (Ecco), a memoir of her life as a young songwriter in New York City and her friendship with the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
This year's judges were Rae Armantrout, Cornelius Eady, Linda Gregerson, Jeffrey McDaniel, Brenda Shaughnessy in poetry; Andrei Codrescu, Samuel R. Delany, Sabina Murray, Joanna Scott, Carolyn See in fiction; and Blake Bailey, Marjorie Garber, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Seth Lerer, Sallie Tisdale in nonfiction.
Each winner received ten thousand dollars, and the finalists in each category, including poet C. D. Wright, novelist Nicole Krauss, and nonfiction writer Megan K. Stack, each received one thousand dollars.
In the video below, Smith reads from her winning book and performs her classic song, "Because the Night."
Nick Hornby launches the Ministry of Stories in London; literary agent Irene Goodman auctions off manuscript critiques for a good cause; the role of self-promotion in contemporary poetry; Barnes & Noble investors extend their poison pill provision; and other news.
