Fictionauts At Large, 2/19

Marcy Dermansky‘s second novel Bad Marie, the follow-up to Twins pitched as “Mary Gaitskill meets The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,”  has been sold to HarperPerennial.

Roy Kesey‘s story “Double Fish” won the Missouri Review‘s Editor’s Prize Contest.

The 2009 Tournament of Books — a “Battle Royale of Literary Excellence “– is underway at The Morning News. Maud Newton is among the judges, and Keith Lee Morris‘ The Dart League King is in the running.

Caketrain rereleased Lizzie Skurnick‘s book of poems, Check-In. Lydia Copeland‘s collection Haircut Stories is now available in the Achilles Chapbook Series.

In Poets & Writers, Jofie Ferrari-Adler conducts a Q&A with four young editors — Lee Boudreaux, Eric Chinski, Alexis Gargagliano, and Richard Nash:  “I do want to feel that the writer has access to something larger than himself.”

Jane Ciabattari interviews Colson Whitehead at The Daily Beast. At Bookslut, Blake Butler interviews Jesse Ball about his second novel, The Way Through Doors.

Fawlt Magazine‘s “Arrogance” issue has stories by Nick Antosca and Molly Gaudry. The February issue of Elimae features Molly, Brian Beatty, Meg Pokrass, Tim JonesYelvington, Kim Chinquee, Michelle Reale, Darlin’ Neal, J. A. Tyler, and David Erlewine, as well as Michael Kimball interviewing Blake Butler. Meg’s “Needles” is in Wigleaf, and Kim Chinquee has a story in 3:AM.

Tania Hershman has five shorts in the February issue of PANK, and Claudia Smith has three stories in Action, Yes.

Laurel Snyder laments the predictability of Jewish kids’ lit in Nextbook.

At Largehearted Boy, Nick Antosca, Mary Miller, and Blake Butler discuss playlists related to their books:  Blake starts his with Animal Collective, Nick’s ends with Pearl Jam, and Mary‘s list has Dolly Parton. Nick will be reading from Midnight Picnic at the KGB Bar in New York on Saturday, Feb. 21. On the same night,  Tsipi Keller presents Poets on the Edge: An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry at New York’s Cornelia Street Cafe.

Kat Meyer discusses eBook pricing in a video clip on HarperStudio.

The Virginia Quarterly Review has made its archives from 1975 to 2003 public — over 3,000 poems, stories, essays, and reviews, including a piece by David Wyatt about  “Star Wars and the Productions of Time” and a story by Jennifer Howard.

Hear Amanda Auchter read Daniel Nester’s poem “Stardust Memories” at Linebreak.

At Jacket Copy, Carolyn Kellogg interviews Gideon Lewis-Kraus about his Harper’s article on the Frankfurt Book Fair: “The one thing everybody can agree on is that Frankfurt doesn’t have much to recommend it.”