A Weekly Round-up with Upcoming Events

We'll combine upcoming area events in the D.C metropolitan area with the weekly roundup this week, and it'll post a day early to make room for a special book giveaway tomorrow. Much of the literary news featured on this blog is on our Twitter feed.

Over the holiday weekend, Amazon announced plans to buy The Book Depository, a bookselling competitor in the United Kingdom and Australia.

It turns out the late writer Flannery O’Connor was also a cartoonist. A book containing her cartoons will be published later this year. The cartoons are taken from her time in high school and as an undergraduate at Georgia State. According to her biographer, Brad Gooch, O’Connor considered a career as a cartoonist. She tried submitting cartoons to The New Yorker, but received rejection slips.

Writer John D MacDonald wrote a satirical rejection letter to magazine editors who wanted to publish his work. He received many rejections throughout his career.

J.B Dickey, the owner of the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, refuses to stock books from Amazon's Thomas and Mercer mystery imprint.

On Wednesday, June 6, HarperCollins Children’s Books teamed up with Barnes and Noble’s Nook Bookstore and the Apple iBookstore to launch a digital “I Can Read Series.”

The Millions provides a list of the sixty-six most anticipated books in the second half of 2011.


Upcoming Events: Book Signings, Open Door Readings, and Poetry Series events

David J. Solove: Nothing To Hide: The False Tradeoff Between Privacy and Security
Politics and Prose
5015 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20008
Saturday, July 9, 6 pm

David J. Solove, a law professor at George Washington University, signs and discusses his new book, Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff between Privacy and Security. This event is free and open to the public.

Open Door Reading Series
The Writer's Center
Sunday, July 10th , 2 pm

Here at The Writer's Center, Joan Dye Gussow reads from her book Growing Older: The Chronicle of Death, Life , and Vegetables. She is joined by poet W. Perry Epes, who reads from his collection, Nothing Happened. This event is free and open to the public.

The Iota Poetry Series
Iota Club and Cafe
2832 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, VA 22201
Sunday, July 10th , 6 pm

This monthly poetry series includes readings from the anthology of poems inspired by Alfred Hitchcock. Readers include Christopher Conlon, Lyn Lifshin, Miles David Moore, Norman Prentiss, and Anne Harding Woodworth. This event is free and open to the public.