Welcome to the new Litquake blog! We will try to keep you informed about the local and world literary scene in the days leading up to the festival. Some of the entries, of course, will be more informative than others.

Since it’s an election year, let’s just kick off things right away with American Wife, the new novelized memoir (or memoir-ized novel?) based on the life of Laura Bush. No doubt you’ve already heard about author Curtis Sittenfeld, who began her First Lady research some years ago with an article in Salon, and has ended up the most talked-about writer of the political season. You know it’s a hot book when the New York Times wets its pants to the tune of four separate articles, plus an excerpt. One imagines Joyce Carol Oates, Michiko Kakutani, Maureen Dowd and Jan Hoffman all elbowing in to snag the assignment, and editors throwing up their hands and pleading, “Okay, okay, all of you can write about it.” Catch Sittenfeld in her only Bay Area public appearance as part of Litquake on Thursday, October 9, at Books Inc. in Palo Alto. Make sure to ask her about her description of the president’s “cute little butt.”

The 100th anniversary of William Saroyan’s birth has been going on all year, with concerts, conferences, readings, and writing prizes. Although he grew up in Fresno, and lived in Paris and New York, San Francisco figured prominently in some of his best work, including the play “The Time of Your Life,” which was set in a local saloon and won the author a Pulitzer in 1940. Note to younger writers – he wrote the entire play in a hotel room in six days. His career spanned some 60 books, and hundreds of plays, short stories, and film scripts. Note to fans of the obsessive: when he died in 1981, his literary archive represented one of the largest in history, occupying several homes in Fresno, Paris, and Malibu, and among boxes of unpublished writing, also included such bizarre items as rubber bands, used typewriter ribbons, and bags of his own fingernails.

Tonight brings Saroyan fans together in San Francisco for a sold-out tribute. Tomorrow Stanford University presents the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. More celebrations continue throughout the year.

And since Saroyan was a huge fan of obituaries, here’s an unusual and recent contribution to the genre, placed by a daughter of the deceased, in a Vallejo, California newspaper. There should be some type of award for such brutal honesty: “Dolores had no hobbies, made no contribution to society and rarely shared a kind word or deed in her life.” This unbelievable parting shot was investigated, and found not to be a hoax.