Something seemed a little off about this morning’s Gawker item about Michael Chabon’s cancelled University of Florida appearance, in which a disgruntled student tipped the gossip bloggers that the author was skipping out on an evening lecture “at the last minute because of basketball (seriously).” So I emailed Chabon to find out what the story was.
“That’s crazy,” he wrote back. “I don’t give a shit about basketball!” The very notion that he’d bail on a lecture to watch a game is ludicrous, he adds: “I have missed WORLD SERIES games because I had a speaking gig, and I love baseball inordinately.” He offers the much more plausible explanation that school officials, fearing that everybody on campus would rather watch the Gators/Bruins matchup, asked him if it would be okay to scrub the event; an offer extended by Chabon’s agent to reschedule has so far gone unrecognized. But cheer up, Gainesville literati: You may not be able to get your books signed, but at least you can hear the lecture Chabon might very well have given.