The Week in Review

A semi-sort of new feature here will be the Week in Review, which I'll post at the beginning of each week--so that it's covering two weeks at a time.

Washington Independent Review of Books is now live! In the first issue of this new online review source, you can read reviews of Amy Chua's new (and contentious) new book, watch a video interview with Mary Jane Clark, and read a Q & A with the biographer of the stars Kitty Kelley. AIRB President David Stewart says of the new Web site: "The Independent is a labor of love produced by dozens of writers and editors, mostly in the Washington area, who are dismayed by the disappearance of book reviews and book review sections in the mainstream media."

The big news of last week is that Borders is really hunkering down and, according to Galley Cat, may file bankruptcy by the end of this month.

The future of books? If it's in the hands of America's youth, maybe you'll see fewer and fewer readers of traditional books--in favor of the electronic ones. This New York Times piece posits that 25% of all YA titles were purchased as e-books--up from 6% last year. That is a significant increase. Does it portend the end of traditional print books within the next generation?

Contest/calls for submission news. Two publications have upcoming deadlines:

Salamander is running its 2011 fiction contest. They're accepting submissions from April 15-May 15. Find details at their Web site.

And the Little Patuxent Review

Call for Submissions: LPR Make Believe Issue

Last year, “make believe” meant an album by Kidz in the Hall, an award-winning documentary by J. Clay Tweel, a Chicago project to fill vacant storefronts with art. This year, it’s the theme of the summer issue of the Little Patuxent Review.

If you have a new take on the many meanings of the term, submit your poetry, prose, or artwork to us by March 1. If accepted, it will appear in print and you will have the opportunity to appear in person at our June 18 launch reading.

The deadline is March 1, and the details are available on LPR's Web site.

Kyle