Awards, Readings, & News– The National Book Awards are in, and if I do say so myself, it seems I picked a winner back in September when I gave Tree of Smoke 5 stars in my review for Paste Magazine.
– Former poet laureate (US) Robert Hass, who taught at Berkeley when I was there, won the poetry award for Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005 published by Ecco/HarperCollins
– Joan Didion, who in 2005 won the National Book Award for nonfiction for The Year of Magical Thinking, was awarded the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
– Poet Cathy Song will give a reading from Cloud Moving Hands tonight at Punahou School’s Luke Lecture Hall Wo Center, 7.30 (626-1481). The event is free and will be Song’s only public reading from the collection. Read Lesa Griffith’s article about Song in the Honolulu Advertiser.
– In the Guardian, Jeanette Winterson’s book club explanations of her book Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit evoke hard to ignore reactions.
– Ira Levin joins Norman Mailer in our goodbyes.
Literary Lotus 