Jennifer Howard

Beginning tomorrow, 10,000 literature scholars, more or less, descend on San Francisco for three days to hash out the latest (?) in lit-crit and the dismal job market. I get to cover it for the Chronicle. Wish me luck. If you happen to be there, drop me a note (jhowarddc AT gmail DOT com or jennifer DOT howard AT chronicle DOT com), look for me in the publishers’ hall, or grab me (not literally, please) after a panel for a cup of coffee or a drink. News tips and hot rumors welcome…. Read more...

I got to spend some time recently at Georgetown University’s Office of Scholarly and Literary Publications. Informally known as Booklab, it’s a “literary boutique” run by Carole Fungaroli Sargent, who combines a deep knowledge of publishing with an intuitive-and-informed sense of how writers work and what they need. An author herself, Carole also has a PhD in 18th-century literature. She gets what it means to be a writer and a scholar. She created Booklab to help Georgetown-based authors cope with the rigors of getting ideas into book form and out into the world. (She’ll work with non-Georgetown authors too, time… Read more...

I’ve been distracted with one thing and another of late (holidays, children, writing projects), so I’m behind on posting. Sorry about that. Meanwhile, I had the pleasure last week of writing about a historical hoax perpetrated by a bunch of students in a history class at George Mason University. They created a fictional 19th-century pirate named Edward Owens and turned him loose on the Internet, along with a made-up undergraduate namd Jane Browning who was supposedly tracking down the Owens legend. The catch? Their professor, T. Mills Kelly, told them to do it. It’s a study in ethics, in research… Read more...

I have read exactly one thing by Roberto Bolano so far, and that’s the short story in the Dec. 22 issue of The New Yorker. I should probably tackle The Savage Detectives or 2666, but I don’t think I can bear to until Bolano fever dies down a little. Meanwhile, scholars have joined litbloggers in the Bolano boom. From an essay (subscription only) by Ilan Stavans in the Dec. 19 Chronicle Review: Witnessing Bolaño’s canonization in academe has been fascinating. Barely a few years ago, he was a don nadie, a supreme nobody; now The New Yorker puts its imprimatur… Read more...

Over at the Chronicle’s Wired Campus blog, I’ve posted a Q&A with Ed Folsom, co-director of the Walt Whitman Archive. This is the first in an occasional series of chats with folks at digital archives about where they’ve been and where they’re headed. I’m doing it as a way to sneak in a little more digital-humanities coverage. Plus it’s fun. If you have a favorite digital archive—or if you run one—let me know about it…. Read more...

From the NY Observer: The Washington Post’s publisher Katharine Weymouth sent out an email to her staff this morning declaring that the business model for the paper would have to undergo a “fundamental change.” First, they’re going hyper-local! Washingtonpost.com is going to be recast itself as a local news and information site for people who live in or near the Beltway. From Weymouth’s memo, as reported by the NYO The three pillars of our strategy are: —Being about Washington, for Washingtonians, and those affected by it —Providing utility, engagement, and convenience for our local readers —Extending our brand with new… Read more...