Today’s news ranges from the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature recipient to a Twilight parody starring Belle Goose. There’s also an inspiring interview with an author using her literary prowess to bring writing to at-risk youth. Enjoy!
Look familiar?
- Tuesday the Booker, and now the Nobel – it’s award season, and this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature has gone to Herta Muller, a Romania-born, German writer. With essays, poems, and novels that focus on oppression and dictatorship, Muller’s work fulfills Alfred Nobel’s 1895 request to reward writers producing “the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.” The selection is receiving mixed reviews from the press, some of whom criticize the academy for being Euro-centric and selecting authors that are too obscure. The Guardian, Jacket Copy, and NPR have more coverage.
- The time has come for a Twilight parody, and The Harvard Lampoon is giving it to us. The parody, Nightlight, releases November 3rd and replaces protagonist Bella Swan with “pale and klutzy” Belle Goose. Belle is obsessed with vampires, and believes her nerdy classmate Edwart Mullen is one. The funny thing is, true haters of Twilight won’t understand the references in Nightlight, which suggests it will be the fans themselves that buy it. Shelf Life has more about the parody and the Harvard Lampoon’s publishing history.
- Leslie Schwartz, who won the James Jones Literary Society Award for Best First Novel in 1999 for Jumping the Green and followed it up with Los Angeles Times bestseller Angels Crest, could probably have her pick of teaching posts at universities across the country. Instead, she teaches creative writing at Juvenile Hall and Homeboy Industries, a program for at-risk youth. The Elegant Variation talks to Schwartz about how she became involved in these causes, the Homeboy Industries literary journal she helped publish, and how these experiences have shaped her own writing. Apparently, you don’t need to be an MFA student to learn from the best.
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