The 20 Finalists for the 2004 National Book Awards, announced today, are among America's most gifted and original writers and their books represent an astonishing range of styles, voices, and themes.

Young People's Literature

• Deb Caletti - Honey, Baby, Sweetheart
  
• Pete Hautman - Godless
  
• Laban Carrick Hill - Harlem Stomp!
  
• Shelia P. Moses - The ( Read more... )

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Austria's Elfriede Jelinek won the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday for novels and plays that starkly depict violence against women, explore sexuality and condemn far-right politics in Europe ( Read more... )

Sting to Present Britain's Bad Sex Award

LONDON (Reuters) - No embarrassment will be spared on Wednesday when rock star Sting presents one of Britain's least-desired literary awards -- the Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Now in its 11th year, the dubious honor is awarded by the Literary Review magazine for the most inept description of sexual ( Read more... )

Seattle Weekly has devoted this weeks cover to the whole "Chick Lit" phenomenon.


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From JAM! Showbiz

South Africa's J.M. Coetzee, whose stories tell of innocents and outcasts oppressed by the cruel weight of history, won the 2003 Nobel Prize for literature Thursday.

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From Launch Music

Kiss singer-bassist Gene Simmons told New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams that he's been banned from any future signing events at the Borders bookstore chain. According to Simmons, Borders felt that the autograph sessions for his latest book, "Sex Money Kiss", were getting too raunchy ( Read more... )

Minneapolis, Seattle, Denver, Atlanta, and San Francisco are the top 5 literate cities in America according to some survery thingabob. Hurrah. It's nice to see that Seattle is high on the list. It's not that surprising though, with just the amount of bookstores (new or used) alone would be enough to get us in the top 5... bookstores galore. Not ( Read more... )