National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers - Gawker Comments

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

Elkie — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 10:15:38 EST

Ugh, I never saw so many drooling MFA students in my life. And the 5 Under 35 were neither attractive nor young. Three glasses of wine later, I still felt ashamed for the sorry state of contemporary fiction.

Elkie

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

julunki — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:28:42 EST

@suzyO: That is a dangling construction, indeed.

julunki

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

Koreanish — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:15:10 EST

@Ms.Smalls: Yes you will, Ms. T. Yes you will...

Koreanish

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

Ms.Smalls — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:56:18 EST

I will be on the list next year...

Ms.Smalls

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

suzyO — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:27:28 EST

but, stillz, himz is a writer. i'z jes read bookz.

suzyO

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

suzyO — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:26:26 EST

okes-dokes, i'm not real good at teh grammarz neither, but shouldn't that read "You can imagine how much time I, a 39 year-old fiction writer, spend fretting about the plight of the under 35 year-old fiction writer"?

see how i putz teh ?z mark? i knowz, i iz stupidz, but, stillz ...

suzyO

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

MisterB — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 15:35:20 EST

Oh, please. Most really talented writers don't publish their first books until they're at least 35 anyway.

[Turns head and coughs surreptitiously.]

MisterB

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

Diglett — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 15:01:34 EST

A few years ago, Dinaw and I were hired at the same time to do some income-supplementing textbook writing. I still rely on that job. I'm pretty sure he doesn't. Sigh.

Diglett

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

PandoraSpocks — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 15:00:27 EST

@Coldouglas: Everything you say is true, except the cancer professor getting the 6 mil doesn't bother me one iota. HAVE YOU SEEN THIS GUY? He is around 40, with 3 little kids, he's done some great/amazing work in the world of academia and computer graphics and when he's told he has about 3 months to live and is probably going to die an extremely painful death he decides to turn it into a positive thing. This is one of the few recent decisions in publishing involving huge advances that actually makes you proud of the publishers.

PandoraSpocks

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

Wrath of Farrakhan — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:49:29 EST

"Ken, Lonny, l'd like you to meet Mohammet Jugdish, Sidney and Clayton. Grab a seat and make yourselves at home. Don't be shy about helping yourselves to punch and cookies."

Wrath of Farrakhan

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

hhpeterson13 — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:47:13 EST

@Clevertrousers: I do it with Penthouse Letters.

hhpeterson13

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

hhpeterson13 — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:46:27 EST

@reluctantentity: Brilliant! I was kidding, by the way.

hhpeterson13

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

Clevertrousers — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:46:15 EST

@reluctantentity: I do the same thing, but with Son of Madlibs.

Clevertrousers

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

SisterStevie — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:46:05 EST

@BalknChain: Ah well, there's always tonight. There'll be some big egos w/ their scimitars out at the New School reading.

SisterStevie

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

Clevertrousers — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:43:47 EST

He looks awful young to be the assassin of Haile Selassie and the former (deceased) dictator of Ethiopia.

And what are these "books" you speak of?

Clevertrousers

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

relunctant entity — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:41:22 EST

@Sayser: No. I read it on the subway and hold it up in front of my face, and cough so that people notice. Then I puff on my pipe, in between stories, and chuckle to myself after muttering a limirick in french. It drives the morning commuters crazy.

relunctant entity

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

etconsumimurigni — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:36:15 EST

@GayatriSpivak: But grrr, Ben Marcus...

etconsumimurigni

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

gefilte_fish_blues — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:33:35 EST

Dinaw Mengestu?

gefilte_fish_blues

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

IndianSlipper — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:29:01 EST

@reluctantentity: So, is the Gawker book making heaping piles of money yet?

IndianSlipper

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

Coldouglas — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:27:32 EST

Just the message to send to these young writers - that they need to get the big C in a terminal way before they can make some real money. (And since they aren't insured their next-of-kin or next-at-Kinko's will get just enough change to take the bus to Mineola.)

Before I forget - Sam Lipsyte is a funny writer. And his dad, those senescent columns aside, once wrote one of our better nonfiction books - "SportsWorld."

I don't know if the photo is of Dinaw Mengestu. But whoever he is, he looks like a less cute but somehow friendlier Justin. What old hag wouldn't want to be his Kelly? I think if his writing doesn't take off, he's got a good future in PA'ing. Just picture an employer tossing a yoga stick this way. He'd pick it up and politely say, "Would you happen to need this, sir/madam/allegedly-brain-tumor-riddled-harpy, before I bury it deep within your cerebellum?"

(Or, if it was a shillaleigh, he'd say, "Sure now, sar/ma'am/allegedly-brain-tumor-riddled-banshee, would you be needin' this afore I smash your noggin wi'it an' kiss th'Holy Fadder's ring?"

At this point, in days of old, Mailer would come in with one of his "black Irish" jokes. No more. Please come back, Norman. We promise to laugh this time.)

Coldouglas

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

Malegirdle — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:26:28 EST

as a writer, I feel like the people who used to not read my stuff were a much better class of people than those who are currently not reading my stuff.

Malegirdle

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

belltolls — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:17:48 EST

But they got the alcoholism thing down pat.

belltolls

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

Conbon — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:13:27 EST

@inthestiz: Doula.

Conbon

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

BalknChain — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:09:08 EST

@SisterStevie: he was told to pull his pants back up

BalknChain

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

hhpeterson13 — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:08:57 EST

@reluctantentity: But do you walk around with a copy of Granta in your backpocket? Because that would be really douchey.

hhpeterson13

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

SisterStevie — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:08:18 EST

But what happened when Drizzt Do'Urden showed up and flashed his scimitars?

SisterStevie

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

BalknChain — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:07:58 EST

Authors who wrote books for which we need a book about to be able talk about books we didn't read...?...

BalknChain

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

relunctant entity — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:06:06 EST

@GayatriSpivak: Hah! Definitely not as much as I used to. But I love McSweeny's and I hang onto issues of Granta like they're money. I would probably read more of "The Best Short Stories" if it was not titled that.

relunctant entity

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

SchmatSchmaymon — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:06:03 EST

Sometimes when one makes fun of newspapers and magazines, they still come out sounding worthwhile. Books never, ever do.

SchmatSchmaymon

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

GayatriSpivak — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:00:25 EST

@reluctantentity: Do you read much short fiction? I used always say that I wished there were more venues for it and then I realized that I hated short fiction...

GayatriSpivak

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

inthestiz — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:59:08 EST

Let's face it--Sam Lipsyte is the greatest American writer under the age of forty, and he is better than all but a handful who are over forty. He should rule the world.

inthestiz

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

relunctant entity — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:58:14 EST

Things have always sucked for most authors, translators, editors, typesetters. The people who actually work on books. And authors have always bitched about that fact to anyone who'll listen.

It is not much different now. Some books get published and earn heaping piles of money, some don't.

So what I'm saying is that my perception is that things haven't gotten worse, they've never been that great to begin with. I don't think that we need to con anyone into anything, history shows that people do it anyway.

{That said, I wish there were more venues for short fiction, other than ones that Joan Didion has already been published in.}

relunctant entity

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

xhack — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:56:25 EST

I'm too busy to read the writeup. Could someone please just summarize what exactly Jaleel White did last night?

xhack

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

GayatriSpivak — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:54:15 EST

Have you seen Sam Lipsyte?

[www.columbia.edu]

Not an attractive fellow. This 5 under 35 needn't worry too much about publishing... 'Dinaw Mengestu,' 'Asali Solomon,' will be sure to snap up all the ethnically trendy writing prizes and fellowships, especially now that they have such edgy sanctioning

GayatriSpivak

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

the cajun boy — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:49:57 EST

the actual "last lecture."

[video.google.com]

pretty powerful if you've never seen it.

the cajun boy

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

LolCait — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:49:03 EST

Man. There really are horrible people behind everything I love.

LolCait

National Book Foundation Celebrates Overlooked Attractive Young Writers

sexbot — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:48:40 EST

I was there. None of them were even "author hot."

sexbot