Blake Bailey, the biographer whose previous books on John Cheever and Richard Yates have won him praise and awards, has found his next subject: Philip Roth. Bailey revealed this week that he signed a contract with Roth last June, and has been granted full access to the author’s archives and correspondence. The pair have already sat down for several “marathon” interview sessions, and Roth has agreed to give his new biographer his full cooperation. The book hasn’t been sold to a publisher yet, but there doesn’t appear to be much of a hurry: Bailey speculates that it will take him eight to ten years to finish a manuscript.
With Salman Rushdie, Junot Diaz, Zadie Smith, and Tom Wolfe all coming out with new books, the New York Times predicts one of the most "crowded literary traffic jams in recent memory."
“I am lying and I am a liar”: Ivygate digs up the undergraduate poetry of Jonah Lehrer, the author and New Yorker staffer recently caught fabricating quotes.
What do you call a piece of nonfiction writing that’s shorter than a book but longer than an article? Welcome to the era of short-form publishing.
Judy Blume confessed this week that she has spent the past several months struggling with breast cancer, and underwent a mastectomy earlier this summer. Blume broke the news in a blog post on Wednesday, and the good news is that she appears to be recovering well. In fact, the Atlantic Wire’s Jen Doll was unable to reach Blume for comment because she’s currently on the road to promote the movie version of her YA novel, Tiger Eyes.
Forget suburban erotica: Amish romance novels are the next big thing. Salon investigates the emerging genre, which features “quilting bees and work frolics, pie bakes, and buggy rides into the sunset. Almost all of them follow a particular young woman in her search for the fulfillment of romantic and family love.”
