News & Notes

April 13, 2010 Hank Williams Sr. died too young to receive the kind of acclaim that accrues with time spent as a working artist. As a singer, a songwriter, and a musician, he was famous when alive but has become a legend since his death in 1953. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961, the National Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. And now, for his unparalleled contributions to American music, the Pulitzer Prize Board has awarded a posthumous Special Citation to Williams.

April 12, 2010 Abraham Verghese’s Cutting For Stone has been named the 2010 Book of the Year in the category of adult fiction. The award is given by the American Booksellers Association, which represents independent bookstores. Read the formal announcement—and a list of winners in all catgories—here. Paul Griffith’s interview with Abraham Verghese for Chapter 16 is available here.

April 9, 2010 When writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans went to Alabama in 1936, their assignment was to come back with an article for Fortune magazine about tenant farmers living in desperate poverty in the Depression-era South. For eight weeks, Agee and Evans lived in Moundville, Alabama, primarily with the Burroughs family.

April 9, 2010 There’s nary a hormone-charged teenager in sight, but Dracula’s Guest: A Connoisseur’s Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories will chill the blood of serious readers wondering how vampires managed to sink their teeth into the popular imagination. Patricia Altner, writing in this week’s issue of Library Journal, gives the book a starred review.

April 8, 2010 The buzz about Adam Ross’s debut novel, Mr. Peanut, has been building all year, and Ross just keeps getting good news. Last week, the pre-publication industry news journal Kirkus Reviews gave the book a starred review, calling it “an intellectual noir novel that shows evidence of an original voice.”