66 degrees. thank you, global warming.

Record-breaking heatwave here in Pittsburgh. It was 66 yesterday! Woohoo!

Another record-breaker: AWP sold out. While last year I simply walked in and paid at the door, this year the Association of Writing Programs pre-registered 7,000 people for the conference — perhaps because it’s in New York — and will sell no more passes. Even all their volunteer slots are gone. However, Tayari Jones knows a press that could use your help — and will get you in.

Meanwhile, book critics converge on San Francisco to announce the NBCC Awards finalists and hold a few excellent panels on, you know, books and stuff.

Fascinating literary fashion from CAAF at About Last Night.

Ed is back.

Was it David Remnick who wrote the New Yorker’s Carver intro?

A fantastic reading list inspired by The Wire. (Maud went to the NY party for the season 5 premiere!)

I don’t live in NY but I do know that the Atlantic Yards development is nightmare of horrifying proportions. The authors who’ve contributed to Brooklyn Was Mine are fighting the good fight; the book’s proceeds benefit a nonprofit trying to preserve the community/

About the author

I like sitting in Jack Webb's booth.