Spanish novelist Lucía Etxebarria has pledged to stop writing in protest against lax online piracy laws and the proliferation of illegal e-books. Etxebarria, who has won a number of prestigious awards—including two that collectively brought her over 800,000 euros in prize money—says she can no longer afford to spend years writing a novel that will only be downloaded.
With book sales falling and e-book sales on the rise, Evan Osnos argues that the role of e-readers “is reminiscent of the way DVDs transformed the movie business in the 1990s, posing a major challenge for theaters while expanding the market for players to be used at home.”
HBO has cancelled Jonathan Ames’s series “Bored to Death,” which ran for three seasons and starred Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis and Ted Danson. Bad news for Ames, but perhaps it’ll give him a long-overdue break: Talking with the LA Times earlier this year, Ames remarked that writing for TV was no easier than working on books. “It's like I'm producing almost a novel every year... But, you know, I can get Ted to say, 'I've been living like a demented god,' and that one line is almost worth three chapters in a novel."
In November 2010, Adam Thirwell attempted to interview Vaclav Havel for the Paris Review. Between the Czech leader’s overburdened schedule—he was filming a movie at the time—and his lack of English, the interview “turned into a melancholy comedy of its own.” Outtakes of the ill-fated conversation are now up on the Paris Review blog.
McSweeney’s is adding a new arm to its publishing empire. Starting in February, the San Francisco-based outfit will launch the McSweeney’s Poetry Series, edited by Dominic Luxford and Jesse Nathan. According to Poets & Writers’ Tess Taylor, the poetry imprint will release “up to four lovingly designed titles each year.”
