1. Five years after the debut of his first novel, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” Junot Díaz, below, is coming out with a new book in September, his publisher is expected to announce on Monday. “This Is How You Lose Her,” a collection of short stories, will be released by Riverhead Books, part of Penguin Group USA. In a statement the publisher called the stories “by turns hilarious and devastating, raucous and tender.

    — 

    Junot Diaz is publishing a new book of short stories. (via libraryjournal)

    Highly relevant to my interests.

    (via paperbackgirl)

    YAY.

  2. jugtownradio: It’s official; The Oblivians will be recording their first studio album since 1997 next month and IN THE RED is putting it out! Here’s Larry Hardy and Greg Cartwright shaking on the deal.

    jugtownradio:

    It’s official; The Oblivians will be recording their first studio album since 1997 next month and IN THE RED is putting it out! Here’s Larry Hardy and Greg Cartwright shaking on the deal.

  3. latimes: Gay-marriage ban unconstitutional, court rules Photo: Opponents of Prop. 8 demonstrate outside of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday in San Francisco. Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

    latimes:

    Gay-marriage ban unconstitutional, court rules

    Photo: Opponents of Prop. 8 demonstrate outside of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday in San Francisco. Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

    (Source: Los Angeles Times)

  4. The Winter Edition of the Georgia Review contains 23 pages of Gainesville resident Harry Crews' writing →

    Via Maud!

    Plagued by a number of ailments in recent years, he continues to plug away at the keyboard, when his health allows.

    “The best book I got is half finished,” Crews said recently. “It’s called ‘The Wrong Affair,’ and, it’s a kick-a— book.”

    Crews said he hopes to spend 2012 doing what he’s devoted his life to: writing.

    “I don’t know when I’m going to stop,” he said. “I guess when I die.”

    You can read an excerpt of his memoir at the Georgia Review website.

  5. 2011 CALL FOR ENTRIES! « Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Sarah Jacobson →

    Important news!

    Sarah Jacobson Film Grant

    2011 Call for Entries and

    Film Festival Announcement!

    www.sjfilmgrant.wordpress.com

    This year we plan to give out three grants to support projects in any stage of completion from pre-production through distribution. The amounts will be between $1000 and $2000.

    We are also planning a film/video/media festival for early 2012, in conjunction with the rad feminist group Permanent Wave. All work samples submitted will be considered for the festival as well.

    (We won’t screen without your permission though!)

    NOTE THAT THE DEADLINE IS DECEMBER 31.

    We are open to films of any length and genre, from documentary to experimental to narrative. What we are looking for are projects that in some way embody Sarah’s spirit and represent the values that she articulated in her work — powerful representations of women, a do-it-yourself approach to filmmaking and life, and a passionate commitment to advancing equality without sacrificing fun. I want to note that last year we awarded grants to three documentaries that were all pretty big in scope—definitely don’t take that as a bellwether, look back at all the past winners and you will see very experimental pieces, shorts, etc.

    We award grants to projects at any stage of production, including post, but not for marketing or publicity.

    Click the link above for guidelines. Also, some background:

    Sarah Jacobson (1971–2004) was a an independent filmmaker who wrote, produced, and directed several movies in the 1990s, including “Mary Jane’s Not A Virgin Any More” and “I Was a Teenage Serial Killer.” Sarah’s films reflected her punk sensibilities, her feminist beliefs, and her dedication to DIY principles.

    After her death, filmmaker Sam Green and Sarah’s mother established the Sarah Jacobson Film Grant for young women “whose work embodies some of the things that Sarah stood for: a fierce DIY approach to filmmaking, a radical social critique, and a thoroughly underground sensibility.” Since 2004, the grant has been awarded to eight filmmakers.

  6. “Five Minutes,” the new video from Binary Sunrise. YAY!

  7. I am heading out of town for a week but before I go I’d just like to announce that next Wednesday, August 24, I will be a reader? performer? participant? at the How I Learned Series at Happy Ending. And oh, the people I’ll be sharing the stage with! Ophira Eisenberg, Connor Gaudet, Brian Grosz, Catie Lazarus, and of course the fantastic and lovely host, Blaise Allysen Kearsley. The topic? How I Learned to Fight Loneliness. Which, you know, I am an expert on.

    I am heading out of town for a week but before I go I’d just like to announce that next Wednesday, August 24, I will be a reader? performer? participant? at the How I Learned Series at Happy Ending. And oh, the people I’ll be sharing the stage with! Ophira Eisenberg, Connor Gaudet, Brian Grosz, Catie Lazarus, and of course the fantastic and lovely host, Blaise Allysen Kearsley.

    The topic? How I Learned to Fight Loneliness. Which, you know, I am an expert on.

  8. [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

    Binary Sunrise: These guys should be fucking huge. One day they will be.

  9. Richard Buckner's new album, "Our Blood," streaming now on NPR! →

  10. A Q&A With Jon Langford Of The Mekons  →

    YAY my interview with Jon Langford is up at The Awl:

    I’m an old fart now. I really am, a 50-year-old guy, so I fucking haven’t got a clue what kids are doing. I don’t know if it feels the same to them. I just know it was all-consuming and exciting and amazing and the possibilities seemed limitless to me when Mekons formed. And I was 19 years old. And I still hold some of that kind of idealism.

    But there was always a lot of humor with the Mekons as well, this kind of barbed edge to it and a kind of Stalinist edge to it… and one week we’d be trying to write, you know, songs to change the world and it’s like socialist anthems and then the next week it was like, “This is a lot of shit.” The thing about the Mekons is we were always very aware of what we didn’t want to do. And as things came up we could have a big list and scratch off all the things we didn’t want to do. And our manifesto was a list of things we didn’t want to do. We never really did say what we did want to do.

    What were some of the things on the manifesto?

    We will only be a support band. We will never have our photographs taken. We will not make a record. We will not have our names printed, or an address. It all came crashing down. Reality evolved. But the important things were the things we didn’t write down: that we thought a band didn’t have to exist within the structure and rules of the music industry. A band could be whatever you wanted it to be.