Fran Lebowitz might be getting her own HBO talk show.
Wayne Koestenbaum is a cultural critic, poet, novelist, and Bookforum contributor. And now we can add "painter" to that list. This month, the New York gallery White Columns will show about fifty of Koestenbaum’s artworks, including “some brightly colored self-portraits and a smattering of male nudes.” Speaking to the Observer, Koestenbaum said he paints "in the |“I am nervous about showing the work publicly,” Mr. Koestenbaum admitted. “I’m also entirely ecstatic.|mood| of Joe Brainard or John Wesley, but with the procedure and crazy intensity of obsessive repeaters like Yayoi Kusama." Koestenbaum isn't the only author of note who will be showing his art at the gallery: Kevin Killian, author of the poetry collection Action Kylie and, most recently, the novel Spreadeagle, will also have work on display.
Starbucks is planning to build a library-themed cafe in Tokyo.
An essay published by the TriQuarterly Review is reigniting conversation over where the boundaries lie in what’s often called “literary nonfiction.” “The Facts of the Matter” was written by a anonymous middle-aged man who admits to having sexually assaulted a female student while he was an undergrad. “When we received this anonymous nonfiction submission,” the TriQuarterly editors wrote in an introduction to the piece, “it caused quite a stir. One staff member insisted we call the New Haven, Ct., police immediately to report the twentieth-century crime it recounts. But first, we figured out by the mailing address that the author was someone whose work had been solicited for TriQuarterly. Other questions remained. What animal was this? A memoir? Essay? Craft essay? Fictional autobiography? We thought it was worth publishing for the issues it raises.”
Fiction writers Anthony Marra, Hanna Pylväinen, and Alan Heathcock are the recipients of this year’s Whiting Writers’ Awards.
