Well the gala was a success on Friday. Many thanks to our sponsors, and to the locals who attended. Perhaps someone will post some photos, but for now congratulations to Mehdi on ushering in our 20th anniversary, and thanks to our events planner, Theresa D. Smith, and our nonfiction editor, Jessica Mehr, for months of hard work in planning the evening.

It's been a slow news weekend in the fiction world, so here's a lot of good reading out on the web. The NY Times publishes first chapters on their book page, and this week they have the first chapter of Stephen King's new novel, Duma Key, and of Charles Baxter's new novel, The Soul Thief. Over at the New Yorker's fiction page, you can check out stories by Richard Ford, Salman Rushdie, and TC Boyle, among others.