news </head> <body class="layout-one-column"> <div id="container"> <div id="container-inner" class="pkg"> <div id="pagebody"> <div id="pagebody-inner" class="pkg"> <div id="alpha"> <div id="alpha-inner" class="pkg"> <p class="content-nav"> <a href="http://patricksomerville.typepad.com/news/2009/10/midfall-haiku.html">« Mid-Fall Haiku</a> | <a href="http://patricksomerville.typepad.com/news/">Main</a> | <a href="http://patricksomerville.typepad.com/news/2009/11/literacy-everywhere.html">Literacy Everywhere »</a> </p> <h2 class="date-header">11/11/2009</h2> <div class="entry" id="entry-6a00d83453a8ca69e20128757b96f9970c"> <h3 class="entry-header"> Some Center for Fiction, Some Gapers Block </h3> <div class="entry-content"> <div class="entry-body"> <p style="font-family: Georgia;">On Monday, my wife and I concluded a little trip to New York with a totally sober evening at the <a href="http://www.centerforfiction.org/" target="_blank">Center for Fiction</a> (formerly the Mercantile Library), which is essentially an institution that spends all of its time and money loving fiction and spreading it around the world, which, of course, is fantastic. The Cradle was on the shortlist for the First Novel Prize, and while it didn't win, it was hard not to see the night as a great boon for young Matt and the like. It was also excellent to see well-known writers in the flesh--I can report that many of the fancy New York ones (famous, but play it cool) we've heard about over the years do exist and are human.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia;">It was my great pleasure, too, to spend much of the pre-cocktail-party-cocktail-party (yes) chatting with John Pipkin, who went on to win the award a couple of hours later for his novel <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385528655/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=156898104X&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=16RRFM1YPPVYQEPWNR4Q" target="_blank">Woodsburner</a>. He was about as unpretentious, interesting, and kind as they come.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia;">A second piece of exciting news was something I saw online while sitting around at the hotel in New York, trying to get over a cold. Scrolling through the Chicago news I sometimes scroll through, I found out that Gaper's Block has picked The Cradle to be its <a href="http://gapersblock.com/bookclub/2009/11/05/the_2010_book_list/" target="_blank">November 2010 Book Club selection</a>, which is, of course, fantastic.</p><p><span style="font-family: Georgia;">And also, finally, thank you to the young wry man named Patrick who gave me a cigarette, which are, as we all know, hard to come by after you've entirely quit smoking.</span></p> </div> </div> <div class="entry-footer"> <p class="entry-footer-info"> Posted by Patrick Somerville at 01:18:23 PM  in <a href="<$MTCategoryArchiveLink$">Books</a> </p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <script type="text/javascript">  </script>  <script type="text/javascript" src="http://edge.quantserve.com/quant.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript">_qoptions = { tags:"typepad.core" }; _qacct="p-fcYWUmj5YbYKM"; quantserve();</script> <noscript> <a href="http://www.quantcast.com/p-fcYWUmj5YbYKM" target="_blank"><img src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-fcYWUmj5YbYKM.gif?tags=typepad.core" style="display: none" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt="Quantcast"/></a> </noscript>  <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/js/recaptcha_ajax.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> var captchaImgAttempts = 0; var allowAnonComments = '0'; var registrationRequired = 0; var registrationOptional = 0; var emailRequired = 1; var useAvatars = 0; var showSignInMessaging = 0; var jsonURL = "/.services/json-rpc"; var captchaSrc = "/.services/captcha?code_encrypted="; var alertCommentCannotBeBlank = "You can not leave an empty comment. 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