• Awards! Three big ones, folks!  The National Book Awards were handed out last week, and the winners are: The Round House by Louise Erdrich (Fiction), Behind The Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Book (Nonfiction), Bewilderment by David Ferry (Poetry) and Goblin Secrets by William Alexander (Young People’s Literature).  The Dylan Thomas Prize (for poetry) was won by Maggie Shipstead for Seating Arrangements. And the Samuel Johnson Prize (for nonfiction) went to Wade Davis for Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest.

• Sean Bean and others read World War I poetry in honor of Remembrance Day.  Which, as a Southern girl, I always find hard to combine with the traditional start of Carnival, on the same day and time, even.

• All you NaNoWriMo participants: keep going!  Don’t give up!  If you happen to be writing a mystery, click here from some “sleuthing truths”.

• You’ve probably heard already: Philip Roth has announced his intention of retiring from writing (and then promptly gave an interview to the NY Times).  And in similar news, though in his case it’s not at all voluntary, Terry Pratchett is giving some serious thought to the state of Discworld once he’s gone.

• Here’s an odd-but-fun couple: A Game of Thrones alphabet in Edward Gorey style – lots of spoilers, so click with caution.  (Via flavorwire.)

• Interview! Well, a Q&A, rather, with Kevin Powers and Ben Fountain, authors of the critically-acclaimed The Yellow Birds and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, respectively.

• If you are a Truman Capote fan, click this way for a previously unseen manuscript by him. (Via flavorwire.)

• And finally: ABC Staff doesn’t always practice what it preaches… (Thank you Jilles for the picture!)

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