Salman Rushdie, author of the controversial Satanic Verses, said that he was disappointed in his publisher Random House for pulling an upcoming novel about the Prophet Mohammed. “This is censorship by fear and it sets a very bad precedent indeed," said Rushdie. The Jewel of Medina is the debut novel from Spokane, Washington's Sherry Jones. It's a first-person narrative of Aisha, one of Mohammed's wives, and includes a mild account of the first time the......

At 22, Simon Rich is a comedic force to be reckoned with. A Harvard graduate with a debut collection of short humorous pieces published by Random House, dubbed, "Hilarious" by Jon Stewart. He'll be reading at the KGB Bar on June 24th. Seeing him read now will be like seeing Jerry Seinfeld at an open mic or seeing The Beatles when Pete Best was the drummer. Audience members will be later be able to say,......

Carl Lennertz is a true publishing insider, and he's got the blog of the same name to prove it to prove it. On the HarperCollins blog, he shares details about both the business of bookselling, as well as random news of contests, poetry, credit card advice, memories, and other miscellanea, or, in his words, "books, music, movies, the big picture, and absurd rants." A thirty-year veteran of the book industry, the 53-year-old Long Island native......

The scandal is a week old now - Kaavya Viswanathan is the Harvard sophomore who plagiarized passages of her debut novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life from two of author Megan McCafferty's books. But boy, what a week it's been, and everyone (for better or worse) is still talking about it. First, The Crimson broke the story about Viswanathan's prolific cribbing from McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings (while......

Stephen Powers (A/K/A ESPO) is one of New York City's great graffiti artists-- about six years ago, he went all city with a wonderful series of gates. Since then, we've seen less of him, but he occasionally does a beautiful burner down on a truck in SoHo. This week we've noticed him working on a huge piece on three sides of a truck at Wooster and Spring-- turns out it's an ad for his......

Elizabeth Merrick, Author, Girly, Founder/Director, Grace Reading Series...

Joel Derfner, author, Gay Haiku...

The first hints of summer still make us think of final exams as much as ice cream and sundresses. Lingering anxiety would have us believe that before you give in to sunnier amusements, you must put your intellect through its paces (the better to enjoy afternoons spent snoozing in the park with a copy of the Styles section spread over your face). Whether this is true or we’re just neurotic, there has been some lively......

The Lutece Cookbook, by Andre Soltner and Seymour Britchky (Random House, 1995) Last Valentine's day, Lutece served its final meal. Fortunately for us, Andre Soltner, Lutece's chef for 30 years, wrote The Lutece Cookbook after selling the restaurant in 1994. While most of the book's 333 recipes are not ones that we would ordinarily cook from (or, in the case of hot souffle of sea urchins, eat!), the book itself serves as an engaging history......

Eve Ensler, Playwright and Activist...

Ross Martin, mtvU...

NY Times reporter Warren St. John is best known to NY-area readers as the byline behind articles in the Styles section about David Sedaris, metrosexuals or bank-robbing grandpas (okay, not Styles section, but still good reading fun). But running deeper in his blood is a love of University of Alabama college football. Alabama born and bred, St. John just released Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, a book about the 1999-2000 season for his beloved Crimson Tide.......

Alexis Rockman, Painter...