Critical Notes

Michael Lindgren reviews Meghan O’Rourke’s new poetry collection, Once, for The L Magazine. Michelle Bailat-Jones takes an extended look at the work of controversial French novelist Michel Houellebecq at the

Faulkner: The TV series? Writer-producer David Milch talks with the Los Angeles Times Carolyn Kellogg about his new deal with HBO to bring William Faulkner’s works to the screen. At

The year-end best-of lists have started to appear in earnest: The Atlantic’s Benjamin Schwarz picks his five favorites, the Guardian lists its books of the year, Library Journal lists its

Last Wednesday the winners of the National Book Awards were announced. (Carmela Ciuraru covered the festivities and took plenty of pictures for Electric Literature’s blog, The Outlet.) The fiction winner

Anne Trubek reviews Jonathan Lethem’s essay collection The Ecstasy of Influence for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. Lizzie Skurnick is writing a mini-column called “That Should Be a Word” for the New

And the lists begin: Publishers Weekly has published its choices for the best books of 2011. Kerri Arsenault is writing a new column for Bookslut called “Locus Pocus,” about books

Standalone book review sections are contracting expanding: Crain’s Chicago Business reports that the Chicago Tribune is looking into launching a premium literary review section. Michael O’Donnell reviews Supreme Court Justice

The Los Angeles Review of Books (see our Q&A with editor Tom Lutz) is launching a series of ebooks collecting some of its essays and interviews. Julia M. Klein reviews

With the National Book Award finalists announced last week, Salon’s Laura Miller argues that the awards have made themselves irrelevant. Bookforum reports that Renata Adler’s 1976 novel Speedboat, which NBCC

David L. Ulin looks at the poetry of Tomas Transtromer, winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in literature, at the Los Angeles Times. Scott Esposito, founder of the literary website