I can’t wait till next Monday, March 22, when I’ll talk with my friend Victor LaValle at Greenlight Books about his latest novel (Big Machine), his previous work, and race, madness, religion, and more. It’ll be kind of like getting some pints together, except without the slurring or frequent use of “fucking” as a modifier. We get started at 7:30 . . .
Portrait of the writer in first sentences: Carrie Frye contrasts Nabokov’s color field with Muriel Spark’s.
Dan Rhodes wins the 2010 E.M. Forster Award, which presumably means he’ll make an appearance on these shores soon. (Via.)
What will happen to your email account, blog, or Twitter feed when you die? New online lockboxes allow you to specify beforehand who’ll get your passwords, which private Flickr photos should be purged, and what final status should be posted at Facebook, but these services are no substitute for a will. And writers and other artists should be especially careful . . .
Not only did David Rakoff star in the Oscar-winning The New Tenants, he adapted the script. (I learned this from Gerald DeCock, stylist extraordinaire, today.)