Laila Lalami

Essential recall campaign gear for Californians.
Link via Turbanhead.

I just found out that my friend Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has made the 2003 O. Henry awards for her story “The American Embassy,” which appeared in the Canadian journal Prism International. You can read an excerpt of the story here.

Here are a few places where you can read the writing of the lovely and amazing Ngozi Adichie: “Half of a Yellow Sun” in the current issue of Zoetrope All-Story (it originally appeared in Lit Pot.) “Heart Is Where the Home Was,” a non-fiction piece for Topic Magazine. And of course the novel Purple Hibiscus, which comes out in October.

Wole Soyinka describes adapting and setting up the satirical play “Ubu Roi” by Alfred Jarry, and its relevance for a Zimbabwe ruled by Robert Mugabe (and, indeed, for the Uganda of Idi-Amin or the Zaire of Mobutu or, or, or…)

Looks like Esquire reversed its decision to have Jayson Blair do a review of “Shattered Glass.”

“So if you’re asking me did Iraq have weapons of mass destruction, I’m saying, well, it all depends on what you mean by ‘have’.” Read on.

My pal Maryanne Stahl’s new book, The Opposite Shore, is now available, so order your copy now. Oh, and here’s an excerpt.

The Guardian has a profile of Alexander Trocchi, the beat author whose novel Young Adam was made into a movie that caused quite a stir at Cannes this year. I really shouldn’t use two relative clauses back to back like that.

California is the laughing stock of the nation, what with Gary Coleman’s gubernatorial run sponsored by a Bay Area weekly newspaper and the 99 cent stores trying to put a 99-year-old (get it? get it?) man on the ballot. I tell you, the only thing that can restore some dignity to all this madness and put the Democrats back in the race again is if Sean Penn announces he’ll run. Arnold vs. Sean. Now that’s something I’d like to see.

“[A] two-page executive order [signed by President Bush two months ago] seemed to completely shield [U.S.] oil companies from liability even if it could be proved that they had committed human rights violations, bribed officials or caused great environmental damage in the course of their Iraqi-related business.” Read on.
There’s not much you can say after something like this.

Update: The executive order is available here.

Tim Pears picks ten “revolutionary” novels in this Guardian piece. He picked political novels, he says, beause “a novel can’t change the world. But a great novel opens the mind like nothing else. And when the mind opens, so too does the future”
What should/shouldn’t have made the list? Discuss.