How Negotiable is a Fact in Nonfiction? « BREVITY’s Nonfiction Blog

“Writers and readers are buzzing about John D’Agata’s back and forth with his fact-checker as excerpted in Harper’s, and also about yesterday’s response from Salon writer Laura Miller.”

The Millions : Judging Books by Their Covers: U.S. Vs. U.K.

“Book cover design never seems to garner much discussion in the literary world, but, as readers, we are undoubtedly swayed by the little billboard that is the cover of every book we read. Even in the age of the Kindle, we are clicking through the images as we impulsively download this book or that one. I’ve always found it especially interesting that the U.K. and U.S. covers often differ from one another, suggesting that certain layouts and imagery will better appeal to readers on one side of the Atlantic rather than the other. These differences are especially striking when we look at the covers side by side.”

Melville House Books » Are we too stupid to read Dickens?

“David Foster Wallace said it best back in 1993, in his essay ‘E unibus pluram: television and US fiction’: ‘There’s this well-known critical litany about television’s vapidity, shallowness, and irrealism. The litany is often far cruder and triter than what the critics complain about, which I think is why most younger viewers find pro criticism of television far less interesting than pro television itself… Critical complaint degenerates quickly into plain whining. The fecund question about US television is no longer whether there are some truly nasty problems here but rather what on earth’s to be done about them. On this question pop critics are mute.’”

Stephanie Vanderslice: Creative Writing Can Be Taught: Creative Writing Professors Answer More Important Questions

The Millions : Nothing if Not Consistent

“Fans of Moby-Dick should read Nathaniel Philbrick’s outstanding historical account In the Heart of the Sea. The book, which tracks the fate of The Essex, a New England whaling vessel sunk by a humongous sperm whale in the South Pacific, is vivid and harrowing.”

A lovely letter to 16-year-old Jackson Pollock from his dad, Paris vs. New York in minimalist illustrations, and more

“The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books asks 125 of modernity’s greatest British and American writers – including Norman Mailer, Ann Pratchett, Jonathan Franzen, Claire Messud, and Joyce Carol Oates – ‘to provide a list, ranked, in order, of what [they] consider the ten greatest works of fiction of all time– novels, story collections, plays, or poems.’”

The Millions : Dashboard? More Like Bookshelf: Your Guide to Literary Tumblrs

“By creating this list of my favorite “literary Tumblrs,” I hope to turn you on to some of the sites that make The Millions’ dashboard that much brighter.”

PERPETUAL FOLLY: Perpetual Folly Pushcart Prize Rankings of Literary Magazines for 2012

“I have updated the Fiction list each year since then as soon as the new Pushcart anthology came out in December. For 2012 I added companion lists–one for Nonfiction and one for Poetry.”

Maggie Stiefvater Inks Deal for 4-Book Epic Fantasy – GalleyCat

“Author Maggie Stiefvater has landed a deal with Scholastic for a four-book epic fantasy series. The first book, The Raven Boys, is slated for release in September. The Raven Boys stars Richard Campbell Gansey, III (a boy who “has it all”) and Blue Sargent (daughter of the town psychic).”

iConnect Photography Book Release & Opening Reception | Piedmont Council for the Arts

“Please join us on Friday, February 3 from 5:00-7:00pm at the CitySpace Gallery for the book release party and exhibit opening of the iConnect Photography Program. Now in the its sixth year, the program is a collaboration between The Bridge PAI and Albemarle County Public Schools. Theis year, the program culminated in a book, El Rio, and a month-long exhibit featuring photographs by students from the Southwood and Westhaven communities.”

Erika Dreifus’ Guide to Flash Nonfiction Markets « BREVITY’s Nonfiction Blog

“Erika Dreifus, the blogger voice behind Practicing Writing, researched and assembled a list of flash nonfiction markets last week. She came up with 26 different markets, including a few which (like Brevity) offer payment to the writers published.”

The Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction « BREVITY’s Nonfiction Blog

Deadline: Submissions must be entered between December 1, 2011, and March 15, 2012. Maximum length for prose is 6,000 words.

JRR Tolkien’s Middle-earth gets a complete genealogy | Books | guardian.co.uk

“But my devotion to Middle-earth pales before that of Emil Johansson, a photographer and chemical engineering student from Sweden, who has read “every book there is to read about Middle-earth” and who has spent years compiling a family tree of every character – every character! – in Tolkien’s world.” Via http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/01/in-the-news-cities-that-read-hobbit-family-trees.html

10 Bestselling Books with More Than 80 One-Star Reviews – GalleyCat

“We checked negative reviews of ten authors at Amazon–follow the links below to the many one-star reviews received by bestselling authors. Twilight topped the list with 669 one-star reviews.” HT: DW

A Daily Email for Aspiring Writers Is Truly Inspired – Culture – GOOD

‘According to Figment vice president Katie Robbins, the idea for the daily email was inspired by the Figment community’s demand for more ways to get inspired. Among Figment’s many services are social networking, feedback exchange opportunities, and writing contests, but users were “always eager for more,” Robbins says. “We wanted to do something that would encourage writers of all ages to get into the daily practice of writing and make good, carefully crafted writing prompts available to them on a daily basis.”‘

Enhanced E-Books: Blowing Up the Book – WSJ.com

“Enhanced e-books—which have multimedia features such as audio, video, pop-up graphics, 3-D images and animation—are being touted as the next frontier in the digital-books landscape.”

The Millions : 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalists Announced

“Here are the finalists for fiction and non-fiction with excerpts and other links where available. As a side note, the NBCC award is particularly interesting in that it is one of the few major awards that pits American books against overseas (usually British) books.”