LIKE THIS. 

The artist is Tomer Hanuka. Recognize. 

Tananarive Due? Steven Barnes? Walter Mosley? 

I am so there. Aug. 19.

[h/t Glyphs] 

I wonder if the people in this trailer bear any resemblance to the people as described in the book ? The last trailer for one of her books had people who looked nothing like the character descriptions in the book. What’s up with that? 

I guess we’ll find out Jan. 22, when this hits stores/your favorite online book seller.

I would answer that question with a big fat “no,” but this article from the Beeb takes the question seriously enough to consider arguments that everyone isn’t a natural reader, books aren’t chic and that reading can involve intellectual snobbery. 

I…have no words for that.

Nonetheless, book sales in the UK are on the rise, which can only be a good thing.

• Hi, kids, do you like violence? Jimi Izrael (yeah, I know) interviews Eugene Robinson (yeah, I know), author of Fight: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Ass-Kicking But Were Afraid You’d Get Your Ass Kicked For Asking. The interview is dripping with exactly as much testosterone from these two as you would expect. Asshattery, too, but mostly testosterone. 
• The Magazine Whore column at Bookslut takes a look at Brain, Child, a parenting magazine that manages to make parenting sound interesting even to those of us who aren’t parents.
• EbonyJet’s timely review of The Bystander: John F. Kennedy and the Struggle for Black Equality 
• African American Literature Book Club, CushCity and MosaicBooks join to promote small authors and presses. No word about the type or quality of the books promoted, though. Sadly.
• Author Gwyneth Bolton wants to give you a read you can feel
• Did you see any really good tech writing published between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2007? Nominate it for the Best of Technology Writing 2008 before Jan. 31
• Are we back to the graphic novel vs. comic book nomenclature debate again?

The list is here.

Finalists in various categories whose authors and/or subjects may be of interest:

• Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I’m Dying
• Harriet Washington, Medical Apartheid
• Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
• Arnold Rampersad, Ralph Ellison
• Ben Ratliff, Coltrane 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an author in search of an idea for a new book will often fall back on past ideas or behaviors, sometimes for ill. That’s why WriteBlack’s putting some authors — who have published books very recently or are expected to have books out this year — on notice that we’re paying close attention to them. 

(more…)

In this week’s issue of The New York Times Book Review, there are no reviews of books by black authors. No black critics reviewed books. 

Black authors on The NYTBR‘s various best sellers lists:

• Quiet Strength, Tony Dungy with Nathan Whitaker
• Slash, Slash with Anthony Bozza
• Living Well, Montel Williams with William Doyle
• The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama
• The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell
• Blink, Malcolm Gladwell

Black authors listed as “also selling”:

• A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah
• Vixen Diaries, Karrine Steffans  (I thought I told y’all to stop buying this)
• Dreams from My Father, Barack Obama
• Not on Our Watch, Don Cheadle and John Prendergast
• Left to Tell, Immaculee Ilibagiza with Steve Erwin

Minister Faust‘s exuberantly kickass From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain has been shortlisted for a Philip K. Dick Award. 

[h/t  The BRO-Log]

• She’s not a black author, but it is simultaneously Earth-shattering and completely unsurprising that the ladies at Smart Bitches Trashy Books have found some, uh,  uncomfortable similarities between passages in some of the completely banal romance novelist Cassie Edwards’ books and other works. 
• And We Shall March interviews Rich Watson of Glyphs. The deadline for nominations for the Glyph Comics Awards for black-themed comics is Jan. 20. Nominations go to Watson at rich[dot]watson[at]gmail[dot]com.
• A podcast interview (it’s a few minutes in, so don’t give up) with black Canadian sci-fi writer Minister Faust 

The Blogging While Brown Conference will be July 25 to 27 in Atlanta. 

Details here. 

Right now it looks like I won’t be at that one, because I’m tentatively scheduled for that other conference for people of color who write.