The excellent Library of America–publisher of hardcover editions of such literary greats as Fitzgerald, Melville, Thoreau, Twain, and Stein–will release a collection of four novels from surrealist science fiction author Philip K. Dick. Neo-noir author Jonathan Lethem is slated to edit the volume. — Read the rest

Fred from FreeCulture NYU sez, "In late April of this year, The New York Institute for the Humanities hosted a conference on fair use at NYU. Entitled The Comedies of Fair U$e, the conference brought together artists, photographers, musicians, directors, students and lawyers to discuss the current state of fair use and how it relates to to their work. — Read the rest

Novelist Jonathan Lethem, author of Fortress of Solitude and avid Brooklynite, has written a stirring open letter to the architect Frank Gehry over plans to create a towering "neighborhood from scratch" in the middle of the low rise, homey buildings of Brooklyn. — Read the rest

NYU Humanities is throwing a copyright symposium with everyone from Larry Lessig to comics giant Art Spiegelman (Maus), McArthur-winning science fiction writer Jonathan Lethem (Fortress of Solitude), Judge Alex Kozinski, Siva Vaidhyanathan and the head of the Andy Warhol Foundation:

A Search for Comity in the Intellectual Property Wars
Friday, April 28 through Sunday, April 30, 2006
Free and open to the public

Friday April 28, 7:30-9:30 p.m.

Jim Christian reminded me about Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything podcast/radio program on PKD, entitled "St Phil."

"Benjamen Walker talks with authors Jonathan Lethem and Josh Glenn about the Science Fiction genius Philip K Dick. He also gets the cover of the book UBIK tattooed on his arm." — Read the rest

Jonathan Lethem, an sf writer who has crossed over to mainstream literary cred has just attained a rare honor — receiving the Macarthur "genius" fellowship, which comes with a half-million dollar cash prize. Previous winners of note include Richard Stallman and Octavia Butler. — Read the rest

In Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude, which I finished on a plane yesterday, there's an amazing aside about a band called The Prisonaires, a group of 1950s black men who'd been sent to jail on faked-up charges and who formed a best-selling pop group behind bars, leaving on special work-release programs to perform and record. — Read the rest

Jonathan Lethem is a hell of a novelist. Ever since his Gun, With Occassional Music (the inspiration for me inserting a character who's "always self-identified as an ewok" in my most-recent novella), I've been an enormous fan. Now his new book, Fortress of Solitude is out — and Salon has a great feature review of it. — Read the rest

Mafia is this fiendish game that has completely eaten fandom, turning science fiction conventions into all-night gaming sessions. In the game, players compete to lie effectively to one another and collude to carry out the sham. It's a game of alliances, betrayal, and dissembling, and I've stayed the hell away from it on the sensible grounds that it appears to be a black hole whence I shall never return. — Read the rest

Patrick's selling off cheap copies of the first two volumes in his Starlight original sf anthology series. To call these seminal is to badly undersell them. They are the best anthologies of original sf to be published since Damon Knight's Orbit series, and are the kind of summer reading that every one of us should be enriching our minds with this year. — Read the rest