Hot Topics for 05.15.08

>> Writer Oakley Hall dies at age 87
The influential author and teacher's books include Warlock and Love & War in California.

>> “It’s All in My Head”
Slate asks: Did Truman Capote and Ralph Ellison have writer’s block — or were they just chronic procrastinators?

>> A 30,000-Volume Window on the World
Alberto Manguel on his 30,000-volume library (in a lovely old barn, in the South of France).

>> Affairs of the heart
Annie Proulx, Ludmilla Ulitskaya, Nicolas Fargues and Alissa York answer the question “why so much love?”

>> PW Cuts Costs, Reviewers Pay
Critical Mass has posted an email from Publishers Weekly alerting reviewers that their rate has been cut to $25/review.