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5 Responses to "Book News Thursday: 20 Under 40, Sad News for Tolkien Fans, and More"

Rusty June 7, 2010 at 10:30 AM

In defense of the ZZ Packer selection, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is my favorite short story collection of maybe the past two decades, and has had a couple of other stories published since as well as some non-fiction. I mean, Jonathan Safer Foer has two short novels (and the nonfiction book on carnivores/vegatarians) and I dare say he'd be at a tippy-top of the "amount published" ranking.

Lisa June 3, 2010 at 02:34 PM

Benjamin Percy...his first novel debuting in late September with a Whiting Award and great collection, Refresh, Refresh.

Michael Kirkman June 3, 2010 at 01:32 PM

That's my point. ZZ Packer? She has been working on a novel for 6 years. She has only published one collection of short stories. How did she make the list?

Gustav Clint June 3, 2010 at 01:17 PM

I think it's awfully hard to predict who's going to be truly great, Michael. A lot of the people you might of bet on from the 1999 list didn't really amount to much.

Michael Kirkman June 3, 2010 at 12:31 PM

In my opinion, the list overlooked Peter Nathaniel Malae, the author of What We Are. Yes, it's only Malae's first novel, but it's a strong voice. Malae has a lot of talent with language and he deals with some major contemporary themes in his book. I think he didn't make the list because his book obviously won't sit well with certain groups. But the list shouldn't be based on popularity. It should be based on the ability of the author (potentially) to be one of the greats. Can you honestly tell me that some of the choices on that list can manage that?

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