Authors

After two books worth of milking his steroid accusations (one successful; the second, less so), former baseball player Jose Canseco now says in an A&E documentary he “regrets mentioning players [as steroid users]. I never realized this was going to blow up and hurt so many people.” Oddly, in this ESPN write-up, Canseco says he would “apologize” to the baseball players named in his first book (Mark McGwire and others)–most of whom continue to be suspected or confirmed as one-time steroid users–but there’s no mention of players like Alex Rodriguez, accused in the more thinly-grounded second book JUICED. More to […]

Penguin had said they would cancel their contract for an autobiography based on taped conversations with the late Coretta Scott King if “promised photos, personal writings and intimate letters” were not delivered by today. Attorney for King Inc. Nicole Wade indicates to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the delivery deadline had already been postponed several times. “These papers were originally supposed to be provided in July. They’ve been rather patient.” The AJC says “last week a judge ordered Bernice King, executor of her mother’s estate, and Martin Luther King III to turn over their mother’s papers to an auditor or ‘special […]

The 83-year-old author was injured in a fall and cancelled an appearance at an Ohio library, but is recuperating at home. He tells the AP he’s working on a new novel about the U.S.-Mexican war in the 1840s. “I have every intention of completing it,” he said. “I am just sorry that I couldn’t come to Ohio during such a historic election. It was very hard to keep me away.”AP

The Czech Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes says in a report that when novelist Milan Kundera was 21, he told police a guest in his student dorm was a spy. The NYT says: “The police quickly arrested the man, Miroslav Dvoracek, who had defected to Germany in 1948 and was said to have been recruited by United States-backed anti-Communists as a spy against the Czech government. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison.” Kundera said via a statement from French publisher Gallimard, “I object in the strongest manner to these accusations, which are pure lies.” Dvoracek suffered […]

Friends and fellow writers will speak in remembrance and appreciation of the life of David Foster Wallace in a memorial service held by Little, Brown and open to the public, scheduled for Thursday, October 23rd, at 4pm at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at NYU.