R. I. P. Essayist, humorist and screenwriter Nora Ephron died last week, aged 71. Obituaries can be found here, here, and here.
- Julian Barnes’s ode to the book. Just lovely.
- Interview! The Guardian has a lengthy piece on John Banville, in honor of his latest, Ancient Light, as well as a talk with Martha Nussbaum about her book The New Religious Intolerance. They also have a podcast on writings in lesser known European languages. The NY Times has an interview with Iranian writer Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, whose latest novel The Colonel has not yet been released in his home country.
- Speaking of the Olympics, the NY Times has a great piece about the Olympic history of poetry. I never knew you could have won a gold medal in poetry up until 1948!
Awards! The 2012 Desmond Elliott Prize (for new fiction) was won by Grace McCleen for The Land of Decoration. The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Fiction and Nonfiction are new this year (as opposed to those for Children’s Books), and were given to Robert K. Massie for Catherine the Great (nonfiction) and Anne Enright for The Forgotten Waltz (fiction).
- Lists! HuffPost has 5 Sexy Books that Went Viral Before 50 Shades. Mentalfloss, meanwhile, found Early Jobs of 24 Famous Writers (not very surprising Burroughs was an exterminator, but Douglas Adams as a bodyguard seems rather unlikely!). Graham Joyce lists his Top 10 Fairy Fictions for the Guardian. And over at Flavorwire is a list of 10 of the Strangest Apocalypses in Literature.
- Remember that Stephen King read-a-long the Guardian is having? Our Ester found you a Stephen King Universe Flowchart to go with it.
- And finally, brain food. Literally (via bookliciousblog.com). Also, absolutely stunning book art by Guy Laramee (via our Jitse).
Tags: 2012 Olympics, awards, biography, book art, brain food, Fiction, flowcharts, interview, lists, ode to books, r.i.p