Novelist gets mother of all criticism: MICHEL Houellebecq is a literary icon whose novels have been acclaimed by critics as the cruel illumination of a troubled era. But France’s most celebrated and controversial contemporary author could be pushed off his pinnacle following an astonishingly vitriolic attack from a critic with a unique insight into his oeuvre. She is his mother - and she is threatening to knock his teeth out with her walking stick if he mentions her again in one of his works. [Australian]

Hoaxes hit bookstores: The caller addressed her like an old friend: “Oh — thank God I got you before you left,” he began. The call came from someone who said he was the Los Angeles blogger and first novelist Mark Sarvas, who was reading at the store in a few days and seemed to be in a pinch. His car had been impounded, he needed money to get it back and he needed it right away. [LA Times]

You’re an Author? Me Too!: It’s well established that Americans are reading fewer books than they used to. A recent report by the National Endowment for the Arts found that 53 percent of Americans surveyed hadn’t read a book in the previous year — a state of affairs that has prompted much soul-searching by anyone with an affection for (or business interest in) turning pages. But even as more people choose the phantasmagoria of the screen over the contemplative pleasures of the page, there’s a parallel phenomenon sweeping the country: collective graphomania. [NYT]

The Boy Who Cried Author: The literary parlor game of “Who Is J. T. LeRoy?” got its final answer in February: The mysterious boy novelist with the horrifying tales of childhood abuse was the invention of a 40-year-old San Francisco woman. But the untold story behind this literary hoax is even more outrageous than the fictions. [Vanity Fair]

It’s National Poetry Month—what should you read?: While there’s plenty of good poetry being written today, there’s at least six times as much of the not-so-good variety. Take heart: Slate has winnowed the stack down to a manageable few. [Slate]