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It Takes More Than Who, What and Why to Get You Where You Want to Go.

World's longest poem in English now belongs to writer and artist Nigel Tomm. Almost all of his new book "The Blah Story, Volume 8" consists of one poem which contains 98,728 words; 449,441 characters (with spaces); 23,161 lines; 728 pages. It is the longest published poem in English literature. The poem is called 'My Blah Story' and it is written by one novel's character.

Norman Sims has spent three decades studying literary journalism, a genre that is generally viewed in contrast to traditional newspaper journalism. But in his new book, "True Stories: A Century of Literary Journalism," Sims argues that literary journalism could be the very thing to boost newspaper readership.

The NBCC announced its new Critical Mass blog project today, the goal of which is to re-introduce authors who have won or been nominated for their NBCC Award. According to the press release, series posts will feature “review roundups, reminiscences of award winners by friends and former students, group discussions, and excerpts from books”.

Book used in trial

Back to the subject of getting our young people reading. Now that teenagers have found a book they like, parents are having a fit over what they’re labeling as pornography in the popular novel Perks.

Twenty-eight year old Monica Arac de Nyeko has been awarded the Caine Prize for her short story Jambula Tree. The £10,000 prize is “Africa’s most prestigous literary honor”.

Hemingway collected polydactyl cats, 50 of which still reside at his home/museum. The USDA says they are exhibits and should be caged, but the city disagrees, and for now the cats roam free…at least until the cat behavior experts can get their slice of the pie. Give me a break.

Tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts buried in the sand in Timbuktu are now being resurrected and preserved. Where once there was thought to exist only an oral history of sub-Saharan Africa, now there is written material dating back to the early 1200s on subjects as far ranging as commercial transactions, the environment and even witchcraft. This is an exciting find, to say the least!

Can a book be dangerous to your health? That’s what the medical professionals are saying about this one.