Good Books

Looking for a good book? Try the Underground Library.

Marie NDiaye: The first woman in a decade, and the first black woman ever, to win the Prix Goncourt. CL Jansen praised her work on Bookslut last year: "She returns to traditionally female topics—motherhood, the conjugal home, loneliness—but with a thoroughly modern approach.... They are anchored to the misunderstandings, the moral apathy, and the insecurity that plague us today. Ndiaye’s "fable of society and its discontents" is presented, once again, from the fantastical transposition of the everyday."

"I'm actually completely gobsmacked": Nam Le wins $100k fiction prize for The Boat—the only short story collection on the shortlist.

2009 is the 10th anniversary of the Caine Prize for African Writing: E.C. Osondu, Henrietta Rose-Innes, Monica Arac de Nyeko, Mary Watson, S.A. Afolabi, Brian Chikwava, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Binyavanga Wainaina, Helon Habila, and Leila Aboulela.

Rewriting the classics: Tess Taylor reviews new books by Dan Beachy-Quick and Laurie Sheck.

"Why were we given something as amazing as imagination, if we’re not going to use it?" Jim Shepard on fiction-based non-fiction.

"I especially like to write as a man... men are very simple creatures, much simpler than women": BBC interviews Petina Gappah.

Is this the future bookstore?

The MFA debate continues.

Fine forgiveness: the San Francisco Public Library is waiving overdue fines in exchange for a good excuse. Here, their favorites.

The writers take over! Israel's Ha'aretz hands over the reins for a day.

Nam Le discusses the short story.

A reminder from Maud to NYC city council and mayor: please support our public libraries.

"We believe silence is language": a workshop at the Palestine Festival of Literature.

One reason I think Mike Shatzkin is wrong.

2009 AltWeekly Awards Finalists Announced

The Future of University Presses and Journals: A manifesto by VQR's Ted Genoways.

Arda Collins spends the night in a train station.

The World Digital Library: a free collection of cultural materials from libraries and archives around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, prints and photographs.

BioShock 2: a video game inspired by Ayn Rand and Objectivism.

"There are truths to be found in all writing and I suppose the truth coming out of all these fake memoirs is that humans can't help themselves when it comes to telling stories": Michele Filgate interviews Samantha Hunt.

Matthew Zapruder on John Ashbery and not knowing how to feel.

National Magazine Awards Winners and Finalists for 2009

PEN American Center Announces its 2009 Literary Award Recipients

"Real change is a slow accretion": Black Authors on Writing in the Age of Obama.

"I don't know who it was in what writer's workshop who first thought of this 'finding your voice' notion. I think it's destructive." Hugh Merwin interviews John Wray.

Matthea Harvey
The Little General and the Giant Snowflake

Petina Gappah
An Elegy for Easterly

Mieko Kanai
The Word Book

Sam Stephenson
The Jazz Loft Project

Benjamin Anastas
An Underachiever’s Diary

William T. Vollmann
Imperial: Photographs

Roberto Bolaño
The Skating Rink

Rebecca Wolff
The King

James Lasdun
It’s Beginning to Hurt

Tomaz Salamun
There’s the Hand and There’s the Arid Chair

April Bernard
Romanticism

Laurie Sheck
A Monster’s Notes

Eliot Weinberger
Oranges & Peanuts for Sale

Jim Linderman and Luc Sante
Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950

Austin Ratner
The Jump Artist

Dubravka Ugresic
Baba Yaga Laid an Egg

Ben George, ed.
The Book of Dads

Rob Spillman, ed.
Gods and Soldiers

Santiago Roncagliolo
Red April

G. C. Waldrep
Archicembalo

Arda Collins
It Is Daylight

John Wray
Lowboy

Yoko Ogawa
The Housekeeper and the Professor

Fanny Howe
The Winter Sun

Anne Carson
An Oresteia: Agamemnon by Aiskhylos; Elektra by Sophokles; Orestes by Euripides

Wells Tower
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned: Stories

Yiyun Li
The Vagrants