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Production of the movie based on Monica Ali's debut novel Brick Lane, published by Scribner in 2003, was halted on July 26 after protesters threatened to blockade London streets where scenes were scheduled to be filmed.
The longlist of finalists for the first Dylan Thomas Prize, to be awarded biennially for a book of poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction by a writer under thirty, was recently announced in the late poet's hometown of Swansea, England.
Borders Group, Inc., the company that operates the Borders and Waldenbooks chains of bookstores, recently named George Jones as its new CEO. Jones, the former head of the Saks Department Store Group, succeeds Greg Josefowicz, who announced his retirement in January.
Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana, recently vetoed a bill to designate “I Love My Louisiana” as the state poem. The twenty-three-line poem was written by seventy-two-year-old Prairieville resident James Ellis Richardson.
South African fiction writer Mary Watson was recently named the winner of the 2006 Caine Prize for her short story "Jungfrau.” She received £10,000 (approximately $18,200).
Jim Guigli, a retired mechanical designer who lives in Carmichael, California, recently won the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest—a distinction that many writers would just as soon avoid. The award, sponsored by the English department at San Jose State University, is given annually for the worst opening sentence of a novel.
The social networking Web site Gather.com recently launched a contest that offers creative writers a chance to sell their submissions through Amazon Shorts, a program developed by Amazon.com that sells short stories and essays in a digital format for forty-nine cents each.
In addition to the standard venues for literary readings—bookstores, bars, libraries, and coffee shops—casinos are becoming attractive locations for authors who want to take a gamble on scheduling nontraditional appearances while on book tours.
Novelist and memoirist A. M. Homes investigates how an author's Web site should look and function.
During her third month on the job, Jacobs spoke about her new position as executive director of the oldest independent publisher of women's writing in the world.
