Literary agent and onetime editor of Grove Press Ira Silverberg is leaving his position at Sterling Lord Literistic—where he represented authors such as Sam Lipsyte, Adam Haslett, Rene Steinke, and Neil Strauss—to become the new director of literature for the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Wall Street Journal debuts its e-book bestseller list, which—surprise, surprise—looks just like regular old print bestseller lists. Nicholas Sparks, Bill O’Reilly and James Patterson rank high on both.
E-readers actually get heavier—by about a molecule—with each new virtual book added.
The first book ever to be outfitted with a ‘smart chip’—an RFID-enabled sticker that lets you pull up more information by tapping a smartphone against it—will be Gary Schwartz’s The Impulse Economy: Understanding Mobile Shoppers and What Makes Them Buy.
“We all—in the end—die in medias res. In the middle of a story. Of many stories.” Novelist Mona Simpson eulogizes Steve Jobs, the long-lost brother she met for the first time when she was twenty-five.
Post-Halloween listening: Christopher Walken reads “The Raven”.
