Book News, In Brief

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm addicted to Margaret Seltzer's literary fraud in ways that I never was James Frey's or J.T. Leroy's. She's sooo bad at being "hood," and yet she fooled an entire publishing house, a bunch of newspapers, magazines, bloggers, etc. Click here for an unintentionally hilarious interview where Seltzer describes what it was like to cook up crack, why Bloods smoke "bigarettes," and why she hates when people assume that everybody from South Central LA is in a gang -- despite the fact that she was in the middle of telling her own gangbanger-from-South-Central-LA-story!

Once original comic book art was accepted as a smart investment, it was only a matter of time before kids' lit illustrations got gobbled up by the wealthy, as well.
Via the AP: "You can quibble about the critical side of the art, but the market is bearing out that yes, original children's book artwork is getting out there," said Timothy Young, an author on the topic and curator of Yale University's Betsy Beinecke Shirley Collection of American Children's Literature.
Read more here. (You poor folks needn't bother.)

A growing number of Arab countries are planning to boycott the Salon du Livre international book fair in Paris. This is due to the festival's decision to dedicate the event's prestigious "Pavilion of Honour' solely to Israeli writers.
Via Guardian UK: A statement issued by Isesco said that "the crimes against humanity Israel is perpetrating in the Palestinian territories" make it an unworthy recipient of the honour. Christine de Mazières, speaking for the French Publishers' Association who organise the Salon, said it was an unfortunate move. "What is happening in the Middle East is very sad, but it is not linked to our event." Israel, she stressed, was not being honoured for its politics but for its writers."
Read more here.