Established in 1950, the National Book Award is an American literary prize given to writers by writers and administered by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization.
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November 18, 2009
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Sheldon Dorf died on November 4 in San Diego. The 76-year-old passed away from kidney failure apparently due to complications of diabetes. We all owe Dorf a debt of gratitude for the magical thing he founded in 1970: the San Diego Comic-Con.
Set in Hong Kong during the outbreak of World War II, and its aftermath ten years later, THE PIANO TEACHER alternates between the lives of two vastly different women whose destinies are linked by the events of the war.
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November 17, 2009
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A few weeks ago, we sent out a request to writers, teachers, librarians, pros, and more to tell us the graphic novels they’d recommend as the best of the year. We keep getting their responses in, and we plan to unveil a more complete list in December. But just to give you a taste of the big books (and just in case you want to get a head start on your holiday shopping), we’re starting the list early. Here’s a sample of some of the responses we’ve gotten. Keep checking back to see more picks added for the best comics, manga, and graphic novels of the year!
Nov 17, 2009
“It’s a fun story, and it’s a funhouse story to a degree.”
Those are writer Kevin Baker’s words to describe his brilliant new book, Luna Park, an evocative story of a former Russian soldier still recovering from the emotional wounds of the battle in Chechnya. The soldier has since settled in New York, where he works as part of the Brooklyn mob. There in the shadow of Coney Island, he faces the ghosts of his past and the mysteries of his future through the eyes of his new girlfriend, a prostitute and fortuneteller. “There’s a noir story there, with time travel and all those good things,” Baker says. “I hope people are surprised by it, although there are little hints to the ending throughout if they can find them.”
November 16, 2009
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Last month, the New Jersey State Library announced a new grant that will help 14 libraries across the state establish graphic-novel collections. In what seems to be a first, the grant—$3,000 for each library, all made possible by the Florence Taylor Tischler and Nathaniel Tischler Memorial Fund—will help the libraries build their graphic collections from the ground up.
About the Book
THE LIAR’S CLUB brought to vivid, indelible life Mary Karr's hardscrabble Texas childhood. CHERRY, her account of her adolescence, "continued to set the literary standard for making the personal universal" (Entertainment Weekly). Now LIT follows the self-professed blackbelt sinner's descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness --- and to her astonishing resurrection.
Karr's longing for a solid family seems secure when her marriage to a handsome, Shakespeare-quoting blueblood poet produces a son they adore. But she can't outrun her apocalyptic past. She drinks herself into the same numbness that nearly devoured her charismatic but troubled mother, reaching the brink of suicide. A hair-raising stint in "The Mental Marriott," with an oddball tribe of gurus and saviors, awakens her to the possibility of joy and leads her to an unlikely faith. Not since Saint Augustine cried, "Give me chastity, Lord --- but not yet!" has a conversion story rung with such dark hilarity.
LIT is about getting drunk and getting sober; becoming a mother by letting go of a mother; learning to write by learning to live. Written with Karr's relentless honesty, unflinching self-scrutiny, and irreverent, lacerating humor, it is a truly electrifying story of how to grow up --- as only Mary Karr can tell it.
LIT: A Memoir © Copyright 2011 by Mary Karr. Reprinted with permission by Harper Perennial. All rights reserved.
I am in Miami for the Miami Book Fair, one of my favorite events of the year. This is my fifth year attending this wonderfully jam-packed weekend of author talks and book conversation. My schedule started with a dinner last night with panelists for the Day of Comics and Graphic Novels Education program, and I am jotting this note before I head over to that since I know this day will be hectic. I actually hopped into town on Wednesday to score some much-needed reading time by the pool yesterday. The way I see it, reading is wonderful, but reading by the pool is just over the top. And I had a HUGE stack of reading to do, thus I needed a big pool to sit by --- and my hotel has a 110’ one. And yes, this does make sense to a reader who is a swimmer.
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Nov 11, 2009
The Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novels have sold more than six million copies and made its writer, Laurell K. Hamilton, a #1 New York Times bestselling author. Recently, Anita took on graphic-novel form, giving her many fans a chance to see their tough-as-nails heroine as depicted by top comics artists. Hamilton gave GraphicNovelReporter some behind-the-scenes information on the graphic novel process, how she wishes she could draw, and the imaginative fun of creating giant cobras.
Nov 10, 2009
November 2009
Frank Beddor's latest book,
MAD WITH WONDER, is the second installment in his graphic novel companion series to
The Looking Glass Wars trilogy, a prose re-imagining of Lewis Carroll's ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND.
