The Smart Set is a weekly feature, compiled by Lauren Cerand, that usually appears Mondays at 12:30pm and highlights the best of the week to come. Special favor is given to New York’s independent booksellers and venues, and low-cost and free events. Please send details to lauren [at] maudnewton.com by the Thursday prior to publication, with the event’s date in . . .
Anyone can submit fiction to The Frontlist. Highly-ranked stories are read by an editor or agent. The system is like Zoetrope’s, except Frontlist is mostly genre so far.
“Hello, Grisham — So Long, Hemingway?” Libraries cull their stacks, and I’m staying out of it this time; angry librarians scare me. (See also.)
My year-end books piece for Newsday ran over the weekend. Supplementing it here, in 2007, seems fitting, since two of the novels I admired — Calvin Baker’s Dominion and Colson Whitehead’s Apex Hides the Hurt — have inspired me to set up a public discussion between the authors this spring. The topic will be names/branding and freedom in the market . . .
I finally know why The Guardian deleted Donna Tartt’s “The Ambush” from its website. Tin House reprinted the story, and it’s collected in BASS 2006.