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  • Tin House

In a sea of terrible books based on cute animal Tumblrs, I love hearing about the triumphs of the written word. This week was rife with such news. Exhibit A: Remember Charles D'Ambrosio? Come ON, you guys—he left Portland just last year, and we ran an excerpt from his glorious essay collection, Loitering, in last year's December 3 issue. That selfsame Loitering has now been shortlisted for a PEN literary award!

Meanwhile, Anna Kendrick is many things: the best part of the shitshow that was the Twilight saga movie franchise, AMAZING in the underappreciated Drinking Buddies and everything else she has touched, and NOW, she is becoming an author, with an essay collection due out from Simon & Schuster next fall. I'm no psychic, but I HAVE read many books by people whose fame is not tied to writing—they keep writing them for some reason, I have no idea why—and I have high hopes for this one. Why? Because Anna Kendrick is the best, and also because she's really funny on Twitter (a proven sign of book-related success, and if you don't believe me, go talk to Megan Amram).

Rejoice! The printed word: not just for baby animal Tumblr reprints.