paper trail

Feb 26, 2010 @ 6:00:00 am

Novelist Colson Whitehead

Skip grad school and get all the writerly advice you need at Flavorwire, which has collected mantras for writers: Zadie Smith's grand, "Avoid cliques, gangs, groups," Jonathan Franzen's techie, "Never use the word 'then' as a ­conjunction," and Richard Ford's sage, "Don't write letters to the editor." That's good counsel from Ford, who is famous for spitting on Colson Whitehead, who panned Ford's A Multitude of Sins; why write a lowly letter when you can log a direct complaint?

The Awl's Maria Bustillos writes "Dave Eggers is the most detested man in American haute-literary circles," and explains why you shouldn't hate the guy.

At the Tools of Change conference, Arianna Huffington tried to calm fears about the end of publishing, but still expounded on the virtues of free content.

The 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction finalists have been announced. Much hasty Googling of "Lorraine Lopez" has ensued; her Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories, published by BkMk books, is an unlikely candidate against literary brand names like Sherman Alexie, Lorrie Moore, Barbara Kingsolver, and Colson Whitehead. And yeah, we're pulling for Whitehead (He's brushed off Ford's Pulitzer-winning spittle), deserving for his deft and funny novel and his endlessly diverting tweets.