Laila Lalami

It seems that the winning entry from MoveOn.Org’s bushin30seconds contest will not be run during the Super Bowl. CBS is refusing to air it. Go here for details. (Thanks to Sarah S. for the link.)

Cecelia Ahern, who happens to be the daughter of the prime minister of Ireland, and who, at 22, received mountains of money for her first novel is now facing a backlash before the book is even out.

Only a week after the infamous attacks in Pune, which resulted in the sacking of thousands of rare manuscripts, it seems hooligans attacked a poet in Bangalore, India because they disagreed with his poem. This is starting to get quite worrisome. I do note, of course, that the hooligans’ religious affiliation (Hindu) goes unmentioned and unrelated to the crimes at hand in this case, something that would surely have been different in other parts of the world.

Mohsin Hamid, the author of Moth Smoke, defends his book from the “Orientalist” charge in this article. Hamid is at work on a second novel, set in post-September 11 New York.

American playwright William Mastrosimone wants to stage his play “The Afghan Women” in Kabul. The staging faces many challenges from the obvious (the theater has neither a roof nor seating) but the playwright is upbeat.

“The stage would in any case be best lit with flaming torches, he said, making the best of the city’s regular blackouts.

One more reason to hit the sack. I probably won’t be able to blog too much tomorrow as I have to work on my novel and continue the job search, but I should have something on that stupid new French law at some point, on top some pre-posted lit fare.

Now that I finally have a new address I was able to order the last volume of Persepolis. This last installment takes Marji from her return to Iran as a teenager, through her tribulations as she studies arts in Tehran, to her relationship with a fellow arts major. I enjoyed it tremendously (and will probably write my thoughts in more detail when the book comes out here. Volumes 1 and 2 of Persepolis were previously released in the U.S. together in one edition. )

Well, they went to Syria. And then, after that, they were shipped to Iran, and then to Libya. Wait, scratch Libya, they were rerouted to er…Lebanon?

R.I.P., Yankee Pot Roast. You know they’ll get hits for stealing Haypenny’s thunder. Those guys are good.

News surfaced last week that a book with a creationist view of how the Grand Canyon developed was being sold at the park’s bookstore. Now the park service has been inundated with e-mails, “equally divided between those who have a “scientific view” and want “religion” kept out of the parks, and those who believe that the book represents an accurate view of the federally managed Grand Canyon’s origins.”