> N E W S

POSTED 8/3/2008

WEST COAST LIVE APPEARANCE
Jess's appearance on NPR's West Coast Live featured Jess reading (at host Mike Greensill's request) from his 1995 piece JAM JOY YES: James Joyce's Ulysses (abridged). He also performed the prologue to Romeo and Juliet in the voice of Bullwinkle J. Moose.

POSTED 7/28/2008
BLOOMBERG.COM RUNS STELLAR REVIEW
Jeffrey Burke has written a very complimentary review of WILL: "Happily outrageous . . . The sex throughout is well done and not for the prim... Well done, Winfield."

NEW YORK TIMES: "EDITOR'S CHOICE!"
We've received advance word that MY NAME IS WILL will be an "EDITOR'S CHOICE" in the New York Times Book Review for Sunday, August 3. The Times has been very kind to the book, mentioning it three out of the four past weeks.

JESS ON RADIO THIS WEEK
Jess will be featured on two prominent radio programs during the San Francisco Bay Area leg of his book tour: West Coast Live, Saturday at 10:00 am on NPR (click here for a list of nationally syndicated stations), and KQED’s Forum with Michael Krasny on Wednesday July 30.

POSTED 7/25/2008
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW: "A LUSTY, PUN-DRUNK FIRST NOVEL."
The New York Times Book Review of MY NAME IS WILL is online now. It's a lively piece about the novel that draws heavily on Jess's cartoony past to generate a mash-up that jumps blithely from references to Snagglepuss and Elmer Fudd to "British literato Walter Savage Landor." Does the Liesl Schillinger, the reviewer, like the book or not? "I'm not sure. I think she calls me a scurvy cur and a varlet," Jess said when asked about the piece. "But who cares, it's good writing."

The review also includes a link to a great piece by New York Times blogger Jennifer Schuessler about the Brooklyn book crawl.

POSTED 7/23/2008
MY NAME IS WILL: PAGE 69 TEST
Marshall Zeringue's AmericaReads blog features My Name Is Will in his series on the Page 69 test: does page 69 of any given novel represent the book as a whole? Jess provides an interesting take on the question by contrasting the Page 69 from his original manuscript with the final, printed version.

POSTED 7/22/2008

BOOKPAGE gives MY NAME IS WILL a great review!
The periodical's August issue, which is distributed to nearly half a million subscribers including libraries nationwide, says "Winfield's heroes vault off the page in 3-D, Technicolor, surround-sound exuberance."

WILL MAKES NY TIMES "BEACH READING" ROUNDUP
My Name Is Will was included in Amy Virshup's "Newly Released" book roundup focusing on beach books for summertime reading.

POSTED 7/21/2008

LOS ANGELES TIMES RAVES ABOUT MY NAME IS WILL!
The Sunday Los Angeles Times Book Review 7/20 features a terrific review of Jess's new novel, calling it "hilarious," "fascinating" . . . "cunningly witty," "frolicsome," and "high-spirited." Read the whole review here.

JESS IS A RECORD HOLDER!
On Saturday, Jess broke the world's record for MOST SHAKESPEARE PLAYS PERFORMED SOLO IN A SINGLE DAY IN BROOKLYN in an event sponsored by Freebird Books. Check out this great article and podcast about the event as covered by The Brooklyn Paper.

There is also video of the event on YouTube:







SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL FEATURE
The Santa Cruz Sentinel ran a feature article to coincide with Jess's appearance at the Capitola Book Cafe.

NEW COMIC-CON TIME
Jess will be appearing at San Diego Comic-Con, in a panel entitled "Eye on the Past," Thursday, Jul. 24, at 5:00 pm (revised from 6:00pm), in Room 8. He'll also be signing at the Hachette Book Group USA booth, Friday at 2:00.

RADIO INTERVIEW ON WNYC
Jess was a featured guest on WNYC with Leonard Lopate last week. Audio of the interview is here. (Latest version of Adobe Flash required).

RADIO INTERVIEW ON KQED
Jess will appear on NPR's West Coast Live, Saturday, August 2, 10:00am. Check local NPR listings for details.

POSTED 7/1/2008
NEW INTERVIEW
Read the new interview with Jess on Kelly Hewitt's "Loaded Questions" blog.

POSTED 3/16/2008
WHO WOULD SHAKESPEARE ELECT?
Jess has an op-ed piece in today's LA Times: The Bard as Pundit.

POSTED 1/1/2008
BEHIND THE SCENES WITH JESS!
You can now read about the genesis of "MY NAME IS WILL" in Jess's short essay "Behind The Book."