Roundup

I can't help but laugh at Gawker's pitch for the N+1 Reality Television Show. Think "The Apprentice" meets "Project Runway." Picture nubile young women completing challenges in order to win the coveted internship under Keith Gessen.

Michael Chabon picked up a Hugo Award (Sci-fi award) for "The Yiddish Policeman's Union," but it's not his best novel by far -- of course "The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay" is better, but so is "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh."

Create your own rejection letter! With drop-down menus, now you get to choose how you're rejected! (via LROD)

Book/Daddy Jerome Weeks on Superheroes.

Blogs, the publishing industry, and literary journals (at least by my reckoning) all seem to take the month of August off. We should give this time a special name: Hibernation of the Word Month. Linguistic Ennui Month. Cat-Nap of the Literary Arts Month. Oh, go make up your own.

There's a new lit journal out, which seeks to allay the fears of many submitters who worry the editors are scouting only for big names. It's called "The New Anonymous" and not only are writers' names effaced from the manuscript before slush-pile reading, but also editors remain nameless. (via Earthgoat)

Jacket Copy's serial commentary on Denis Johnson's serial novel in the pages of Playboy is a wonderful example of what the medium of blogging can accomplish: thoughtful, in-depth, round-table discussion about literature occurring at-the-moment (not even waiting until book form, but striking at the immediate source, the magazine).