On the Shelf

Steve Jobs. Photo by COG LOG LAB.

A cultural news roundup.

Roberto Saviano has won the PEN/Pinter International Writer of Courage Award for his exposés on the Naples mafia.

Catch-22, the cartoon!

Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker is now an editor at large at Faber & Faber.

Christopher Hitchens: “The influence of Larkin is much greater than I thought. He’s perfect for people who are thinking about death. You’ve got that old-line Calvinist pessimism and modern, acid cynicism—a very good combo. He’s not liking what he sees, and not pretending to.”

Amy Winehouse’s father, Mitch, will write a memoir.

Asterix goes on the road in his retirement.

Audio fiction goes Hollywood.

Dale Carnegie goes digital.

Margaret Atwood goes green.

Coetzee’s papers, meanwhile, go to the University of Texas.

“The first real recipes for what you could identify as biscotti come from about 1550 or so.”

Franzen on David Foster Wallace’s non-fiction.

Literary matchmaking.

Literary jerks.