As the announcement for the Nobel Prize for Literature is due, The Wheeler Centre takes a look at the seasonal speculation on the Nobel Winner and the attempts and arguments for the prize, valued at over $1,000,000, to go to American novelist Phillip Roth.

PORT magazine interview Sylvia Whitman who now runs Shakespeare and Company, the Paris book shop made famous by George Whitman, her father, who describes the shop as “a socialist utopia masquerading as a bookstore”.

Meanjin interview five Australian writers (Kerryn Goldsworthy, Mathew Condon, Peter Timms, Delia Falconer, and Sophie Cunningham) about their work writing about Australian cities for the UNSW Press series.

Baker Street Irregular Michael Dirda writes about his first encounter with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his creation Sherlock Holmes in The Paris Review.

The Slap, an 8 part ABC television series premieres this week. Based on the novel by Christos Tsiolkas there are interviews from The First Tuesday Book Club, The Book Show, and a Q&A.

Katie Beaton takes on Wuthering Heights at Hark! A Vagrant. Also, NPR speak with her about her new book.

Some published letters:

• from T.S. Eliot to Virginia Woolf: “Forgive the unconscionable delay in answering your charming letter and invitation. I have been boiled in a hell-broth…”
• from Ernest Hemingway to Ursula Hemingway: “You must be having a whangleberry of a time with that sledding, I’m glad you’re such a good sport about getting hurt and I’m sure that the boys appreciate it too.”
• the letters of Ezra Pound written every few days, sometimes every day, to his parents have been published: “You have my hearty sympathy for having possibility of genius in the family but I suppose it cant be helped…”