The work of the late poet Adrienne Rich was an important part of Cheryl Strayed's trek along the Pacific Coast Trail, chronicled in her riveting new memoir, Wild. When Discover Great New Writers asked the author to talk about her book and her journey, she told us, "I've always loved books. But the books I took with me on my PCT hike were even more important because they were often my only companions. Some  I chose because I'd always heard I should read them -- books like Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and Nabokov's Lolita fall in to that category -- others I chose because I'd already read and loved them, such as Adrienne Rich's The Dream of Common Language, which is something of a sacred text in Wild."

The Buddha in the Attic is the winner of this year's PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction.  Julie Otsuka takes the prize for her second novel.  It follows the brilliantly spare When the Emperor Was Divine, a Discover Great New Writers selection in 2002.

In the latest entry on Miwa Messer's Discover Great New Writers blog, the Director of the Discover program relates some fantastic news about Discover alumnus Ismet Prcic, whose Shards joins the ranks of other debut novels that have been first recognized by Barnes & Noble and then celebrated by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

There must be a rule of thumb in pop-culture archaeology that states that the allure of any topic is inversely related to its assigned importance in the affairs of humanity. The more trivial the subject, the dearer it is to most of its partisans, and the more worthy of scholarship. The smallest things in life often mean the most to people.

This volume of selected letters written by the novelist and counterculture icon William Burroughs during the period from 1959 to 1974, is a remarkable testament, since it manages to confirm Burroughs's legendary public persona while simultaneously shattering it. In other words, we get the whole picture of the man, not just the usual cropped and etiolated snapshot.

The 2011 Discover Great New Writers Awards have been announced! Kosher Chinese by Michael Levy is the first place winner for Nonfiction;  Scott O'Connor's Untouchable took the first place award in Fiction.

Click to see the full set of winners and the presenting judges .

Recently some friends and I were discussing entertainers who had exceedingly long careers.  A consensus emerged that George Burns, with over ninety active years in the biz at the time of his death at one hundred years old, had established a record that was hard to beat.  But other performers, mostly now departed, have exhibited similar longevity.