AltWeeklies Wire
Retired Army Col. Ann Wright on War, Peace and Dissentnew
Wright joined the Foreign Service of the U.S. Department of State in 1987, and left in protest the day before the invasion of Iraq. Since then, Wright has been a leading antiwar activist and has now co-authored Dissent: Voices of Conscience.
INDY Week |
Bob Geary |
05-15-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Ben Nugent Reveals the Truth: Nerds Defy Definitionnew

American Nerd plays out as part vindication, part apology, and it relates his personal experiences to a range of social, political and historical images and ideas.
New York Press |
Jerry Portwood |
05-15-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Jim Sheeler Emerges from World of Wartime Loss With New Book and a Pleanew
Jim Sheeler's path to the Pulitzer Prize began simply enough. He was just curious about what was going on behind the scenes during the military funeral for Lance Cpl. Thomas J. Slocum, the first Coloradan to fall in the Iraq War.
Colorado Springs Independent |
Michael De Yoanna |
05-13-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Michael Chabon Fills in the Blank Spacesnew

Maps and Legends, Chabon's first essay collection, unearths some of the author's source texts and offers his exuberant ruminations on the role of the writer as protector and defender of artistic ancestors.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Anthony Miller |
05-12-2008 |
Nonfiction
The Best Way to Help Animals May Be to Eat Themnew

Why compassionate carnivorism just might work better than going vegetarian.
City Pages (Twin Cities) |
Rachel Hutton |
05-08-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Stefan Merrill Block Makes Peace with a Family Cursenew

In the tradition of James Joyce, who abandoned his native Ireland at a young age but could never stop writing about it, Block is a 26-year-old wunderkind who got to the brink of fame in his new residence of Brooklyn, New York, by ruminating on his Texas roots.
Dallas Observer |
Ben Westhoff |
05-05-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
You Will Read Funny Storiesnew

Jennifer 8. Lee layers into her engrossing, charmingly tangential book other pieces -- beyond fortune cookies -- of the history of Chinese food in America.
Eugene Weekly |
Molly Templeton |
05-02-2008 |
Nonfiction
Mathematics Professor Manil Suri Finds Success in Novel Trilogynew

In his small, spare office in the inner halls of the UMBC Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Suri is carefully juggling two lives.
Baltimore City Paper |
John Barry |
04-29-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
This Memoir from a Survivor of American Torture May Help U.S. Face Realitynew

Reading Five Years of My Life, I realized the situation at Guantanamo is both better and worse than I had feared -- worse because the torture is so severe, so constant, so senseless, and so institutionalized, and better because someone who was subjected to it has survived with his soul intact.
Santa Barbara Independent |
Hannah Tennant-Moore |
04-28-2008 |
Nonfiction
What Mary Roach Doesn't Want to Talk About in 'Bonk'new

Sadism recognizes taboo and guilt and shame; the transgression is the point. But for science, and for Roach, taboo is simply superstition, a roadblock the repressed throw up between sex and pleasure, and between research and its funding.
Chicago Reader |
Noah Berlatsky |
04-28-2008 |
Nonfiction
Richard Heinberg Discusses a Post-Carbon Futurenew

Chances are, when you think about gasoline, it crosses your mind in an abstract way -- as if where it comes from and how much of it exists is someone else's problem. Thanks to peak oil expert Richard Heinberg, Americans' naive attitude toward fossil fuels may be changing.
Seven Days |
Mike Ives |
04-28-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Portland: Comic Meccanew

So by now everyone in Portland knows that, to quote one of the most cliched newspaper headlines ever, "comics aren't just for kids anymore."
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
04-24-2008 |
Books
Getting Geeky with Brian Michael Bendisnew

Bendis, winner of five Eisner Awards (the comics equivalent of a Pulitzer), became one of the prime architects of the Marvel Comics' Ultimate line and perhaps the most celebrated Daredevil writer since Frank Miller.
Willamette Week |
Erik Bader |
04-23-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Talking Politics & Prose with Elizabeth Haileynew
"Like a lot of women my age, I missed the '60s because I was at home raising my daughters," says the silver-haired, silver-tongued author of the trailblazing A Woman of Independent Means. "But now that I'm in my 60s, I'm ready to march. In the third act of my life, I'm ready for the front lines."
The Texas Observer |
Robert Leleux |
04-23-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Tags: activism, Elizabeth Hailey
The Comic Book Industry's Sketchy Futurenew
Though the industry is currently chugging along with a good bit of steam under it, the margins are still precariously thin in places.
Charleston City Paper |
Jason A. Zwiker |
04-23-2008 |
Books