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Well-Known Columnist Apparently Got 'Swatted'

Someone called cops, told them Leonard Pitts Jr.'s wife was being murdered in their home

(Newser) - "It was an interesting way to start the morning," says columnist Leonard Pitts Jr., and that may be just a bit of an understatement. After someone made a hoax call to police reporting that the wife of the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist was being murdered inside their Bowie, Md....

He Disappeared on a Road Trip. Now, a New Development

Authorities believe body found in Calif. river is that of automotive writer David Gordon Johnson

(Newser) - It's not the news the family and friends of David Gordon Johnson had been hoping for. Per the New York Post and CNN , the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office reported Friday that a body was found Thursday in the Mokelumne River, near the inlet of a lake, north of...

Author Tom Wolfe Dead at 87
Author Tom Wolfe Dead at 88
obituary

Author Tom Wolfe Dead at 88

He wrote 'Bonfire of the Vanities,' 'The Right Stuff,' was pioneer of New Journalism

(Newser) - Tom Wolfe, author of works including The Right Stuff, the Bonfire of the Vanities, and A Man in Full has died in Manhattan at age 88, reports the New York Times . The cause of death was unclear, but Wolfe had been recently hospitalized for an infection. In addition to his...

Edward Albee Left a Controversial Final Wish

Playwright's will instructs executors to destroy all his unfinished manuscripts

(Newser) - When Franz Kafka died, he left instructions for his friend Max Brod to incinerate any incomplete works—a request Brod ignored, which led to the publishing of The Castle and The Trial, among other writings. Edward Albee also wanted to avoid such posthumous publications, and the New York Times reports...

Last-Minute Deal Averts Hollywood Writers' Strike

WGA still needs to ratify deal with producers

(Newser) - A tentative deal was reached between screenwriters and producers Tuesday, averting a strike that could have crippled TV and film production and inflicted harm on the wider California economy. The three-year agreement, which requires ratification by members of the Writers Guild of America, was confirmed by the guild and producers'...

Stephen King, Amy Tan Sign Writers' Petition Against Trump

Hundreds of writers "oppose, unequivocally, the candidacy of Donald J. Trump"

(Newser) - Ben Carson and Chris Christie are apparently Donald Trump fans (and Paul Ryan's still not sure ), but count Stephen King, Amy Tan, and Junot Diaz among those who definitely fall into the "Dump Trump" camp. They're among the hundreds of writers who've signed an...

The Problem With the Myth of the Starving Artist

Most aren't really starving—they've got resources, support

(Newser) - We hold the archetype of the starving artist—the one working two crap jobs and burning the midnight oil to birth their masterpieces, subsisting on sheer love of craft—close to our hearts, but in reality art is more often born of privilege and resources, writes Ann Bauer in a...

Writers Break Silence on Secret Amazon Retreat

The bookseller's literary weekend, called Campfire, is famously secretive and lavish

(Newser) - Not much is known about the literary weekend Amazon founder Jeff Bezos hosts in Santa Fe every year, other than that it is lavish and the writers are showered with gifts and even a suitcase in which to carry the gifts home, occasionally on private jets. But the spare-no-expense "...

Surprising Jobs That Earn 6 Figures

Elevator repairmen make the list

(Newser) - It's not just investment bankers, doctors, and the Waltons who earn sizable salaries. Forbes has compiled a list of 20 surprising occupations that pay out more than $100,000, at least for those in the top 10% of their professions. A sampling:

Alice Walker Blocks Israeli Edition of Color Purple

Author accuses Israel of persecuting Palestinians

(Newser) - Alice Walker is prohibiting an Israeli publisher from printing a new Hebrew-translated edition of her classic novel The Color People because, says Walker, "Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people." Walker has been a vocal critic of Israeli policies, reports the Los Angeles Times ...

Martinis, Vinegar: Famed Writers' Favorite Snacks

Authors look to everything from sherry to popsicles for inspiration

(Newser) - Some of history's greatest writers have relied on "food for thought." For Truman Capote, a daily regimen of coffee, tea, sherry, and martinis was his path to creative greatness. Others kept it simpler: Marcel Proust relied on espresso, while Jesus Land author Julia Scheeres swears by the...

VS Naipaul: No Woman Can Write Like I Can

Jane Austen's just too 'sentimental'

(Newser) - VS Naipaul might be one of the great writers of the 20th century, but he appears also to be a straight-up literary sexist, notes Gawker , which picks up on an interview he gave to the Guardian . In it, Naipaul says that no woman could write as well as he can;...

Groupon: We Owe Our Success to Good Writing
Groupon: We Owe Our Success to Good Writing
'nyt' profile

Groupon: We Owe Our Success to Good Writing

Daily deals site differentiates itself through the 'Groupon Voice'

(Newser) - Pop Quiz: What’s the best way to describe a 4,700-pound chandelier? If you want to work at Groupon, your answer should be “More brilliant than a studious Christmas tree.” That’s an actual question the booming Internet company asks its prospective employees, reports the New York ...

Hey Kids, Stop Asking Me to Do Your Homework
Hey Kids, Stop Asking
Me to Do Your Homework
MEGHAN DAUM

Hey Kids, Stop Asking Me to Do Your Homework

Meghan Daum is sick of 'entitled' children who don't think for themselves

(Newser) - Not surprisingly, Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum gets quite a few emails. But perhaps more infuriating than the ones "telling me I'm a moron and the reason print media is dying" are the ones asking her to do some kid's homework. "Not a week goes...

On the Page, Salinger Was Anything but Withdrawn
On the Page, Salinger Was Anything but Withdrawn
APPRECIATION

On the Page, Salinger Was Anything but Withdrawn

Remembering the writer, not the myth

(Newser) - The myth of JD Salinger the withdrawn man doesn't match Salinger the writer, Adam Gopnik writes. On the page, Salinger was charming, expansive, and relentlessly engaged with the world. "No American writer will ever have a more alert ear, a more attentive eye, or a more ardent heart,"...

5 Sexiest Writers in History

(Newser) - The Pulitzer is fine and all, but James Brady Ryan issues a different sort of a honor in Nerve. The five sexiest authors of all time:
  • Sylvia Plath: A tragic figure for sure, but still a beauty.
  • Jack Kerouac: So he’s a little bit of a cliché at this
...

Oprah Picks Short Story Collection for Book Club

Nigerian author writes about African children

(Newser) - Oprah Winfrey has blessed the book world's eternal underdog: the short story. Publishing's surest hitmaker yesterday picked Uwem Akpan's debut collection, Say You're One Of Them, guaranteeing sales generally unthinkable for short stories beyond works by Ernest Hemingway, John Cheever and other giants of the art form. Akpan, 38, is...

Boozing Author/Mom Hits the Wagon

(Newser) - Stefanie Wilder-Taylor made a name for herself penning light-hearted accounts of life as a hard-drinking mom, so her blog readers were shocked when she announced that she was laying off the sauce, the New York Times reports. Drinking-while-parenting “was a way to express that we’re still fun people,...

Behind Mad Men Are...Women
 Behind Mad Men Are...Women 

Behind Mad Men Are...Women

Women directed five of this season's 13 episodes

(Newser) - The misogynists who populate Mad Men's character ranks might make you think otherwise, but seven of the show's nine writers are women—a rarity in Hollywood, where 80% of primetime programs in 2007-08 had no female writers. “A lot of people think women can only do women shows,”...

LBJ Biographer Aims for Eternity
 LBJ Biographer 
 Aims for Eternity 
glossies

LBJ Biographer Aims for Eternity

Tireless writer published average of one book every ten years

(Newser) - Lyndon Johnson's biographer takes his work seriously—so much so, he didn't cover LBJ's presidency for 30 years, Newsweek reports. Rising from the tabloid world in the 1960s, Robert Caro first wrote a painstaking biography of New York mogul Robert Moses. Next came a volume on LBJ's youth; Caro even...

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