Just in time for the gift-guide season, the venerable alt-weekly has released "The Village Voice Film Guide: 50 Years of Movies From Classics to Cult Hits," edited by former Voice film critic Dennis Lim. The anthology includes reviews from every era of the paper's storied history, and includes contributions by Jonas Mekas, Oliver Stone and J. Hoberman.
According to Publisher/Editor Will Swaim, News and Investigations Editor Nick Schou will pen a biography of Gary Webb, the late investigative journalist, for Nation Books. Webb is best known for his San Jose Mercury News "Dark Alliance" series, which explored links between the CIA, Nicaraguan contras, and crack cocaine. Webb worked briefly at the Sacramento News and Review before his suicide in 2004. Schou has reported on the controversy over the "Dark Alliance" series in several articles for OC Weekly.
This year AAN put out no ordinary awards book. Among the honored first-place entries is a Pulitzer Prize-winning story by Willamette Week's Nigel Jaquiss. "Best AltWeekly Writing and Design 2005" offers a wide selection of riveting reading, produced by some seasoned writers and others just beginning to make their mark. The bookstore-quality volume is designed to reach a wider audience than ever.
So says Brangien Davis in this lengthy feature previewing "The Commitment," due to be released later this month by Dutton. Among other topics, Davis talks to the sex columnist and editor of The Stranger about his family -- both old and new -- and gay marriage. Explaining why he doesn't feel that the family focus of "The Commitment" is philosophically at odds with his weekly sex column, Savage says, "If people are reading my column closely, I think they can see I'm conservatively pro-family. Most people have sex with their spouses, and being pro-sexual-pleasure is the way to keep that love alive."
Judges' critiques of the 2005 AltWeekly Awards winners can now be downloaded for review. The same comments will appear in AAN Press's forthcoming book, Best AltWeekly Writing and Design 2005. Individual newspapers can also obtain summaries of remarks on all of their entries.
