Allegra Goodman, one of my favorite novelists, announced on her blog that she has completed a complete manuscript of her new novel, Arcadia. (A surprising choice for a title considering Lauren Groff, the talented young author of The Monsters of Templeton, just published a novel with the same title this past year.)

The novelist, poet, critic, and biographer Jay Parini will be writing a full-length biography of his close friend, Gore Vidal. For an appreciation of the late, great Vidal, see Matthew Boudway's post here.

My good friend Craig Fehrman has an essay on David Foster Wallace as a midwestern writer in this week's Chicago Reader. Craig also describes his disappointment with D. T. Max's new biography of Wallace, Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story, which is set to come out on Friday. Having just finished the book, I can tell you that Craig is being overly kind--the work is a real disappointment.

Fleet Foxes, an indie band that I've talked about here before, is launching a literary magazine.

Compazine