Friday’s Links
Some weekend reading for our loyal followers. You know who you are.
— The National Book Award finalists have been announced. Of the fiction finalists I’ve only read the Nicole Krauss, which is excellent. I assume the others are quite good, too, as I have nothing but admiration for Andrei Codrescu, one of the judges. His The Poetry Lesson is one of the best books of this year, just like The Posthuman Dada Guide was one of the best of 2009.
— Have you guys been keeping up with Ron Charles? I hope so. It’ll be on the quiz.
— A man throws a book at the Prez and is not arrested or charged. The lesson here? It’s okay to throw books at the Prez. Which I did not know.
— I love it when lit-minded folks think outside the box.
— Jonathan Safran Foer is such a cutup.
— Our compatriot Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich is interviewed at Vernacular.
— Here’s an old one resurrected by our C4 friend Sean Clark: Dan Brown’s 20 Worst Sentences. (I once tried to read The da Vinci Code, but it made me feel yucky, inside and out)
— An excellent new nonfiction piece over at Fringe.
— Shameless Plug of the Week: Also at Fringe, I interview Molly Gaudry, author of the excellent novella We Take Me Apart.
— Let’s close this week with a link to River Styx’s micro fiction contest, in which the winner receives cash and a case of beer. Cash is okay, but I have never once won any beer for my writing. And it hurts.