Late last Friday, Patrick W. Gavin of mediabistro.com’s FishbowlDC posted a roundup of the Washington Post staffers accepting buyouts, of which three names are of immediate relevance to the book publishing community. First, there’s film critic Stephen Hunter, who will presumably have more time to write thriller novels like Point of Impact (which became the Mark Wahlberg vehicle Shooter) and last year’s The 47th Samurai. Second, Book World editor Marie Arana, who could also use the free time to write more novels like Cellophane—or maybe she’s accumulated enough life experiences since being nominated for the National Book Award in 2001 for a follow-up sequel to American Chica. Finally, there’s classical music critic Tim Page, who also spearheaded the Dawn Powell revival of the 1990s.
For background on the buyouts, see Patrick’s reprinting of the internal memo from March.