jesse andrews is napping furtively

PAPERBACK NOW AVAILABLE in the U.S./Canada

Tue, 07 May 2013 16:33:15 -0400

Me and Earl is OUT IN PAPERBACK! Same great cover! Pretty much all of the same words! Actually I think 100% of the same words!! But now it costs and weighs less. And as a bonus, four of the paperbacks in our initial run have, instead of Chapter 18, eight glossy high-definition photos of lions having sex. So those are collector’s editions and probably they’ll be worth a lot someday. Chapter 18 is fine, but it’s surprising how well the book reads without it.

Here is a raccoon reading this brand-new paperback. He’s a pretty slow reader! You’re just gonna have to wait your turn, functionless modular origami shape!

(raccoon by hazel village)

i was kind of a weird kid

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:01:39 -0400

i was kind of a weird kid

me and earl wins the cybil

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:53:19 -0500

So, some kind of incredible stuff happened. This morning, I found out that Me and Earl won the 2012 Cybil Award for Young-Adult Fiction.

Also, two weeks ago, Me and Earl made the top ten of YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list, and the Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers list.

This is all incredible news, and maybe it’s not worth pointing out, but maybe it is, that every time I find out about stuff like this it’s right after I’ve woken up, and I’m sitting there at my computer, probably with some kind of booger issue, completely unencumbered by pants, still mumbling whatever commercial jingle has been ricocheting through my head for the duration of me being asleep, e.g., “five! muh nuh nuh! five dollar! nuh nuh nuh five dollar foot long! februany any,” and then I learn that my bizarre potty-mouthed little book won some wonderful recognition from someone, and inevitably I think something along the lines of: Oh Jesus Christ. If they saw me right now they would immediately revoke this award. And maybe they should. So in the interest of transparency: Cybil voters, YALSA, Black List executives, Tayshas voters, and Booklist’s Ilene Cooper: every time Me and Earl wins something, it means that somewhere in Los Angeles, a pantsless muttering guy with measurable yogurt in his hair is being honored, and if that makes you rethink things, I would definitely understand. Also: thank you.

i got interviewed

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 12:15:32 -0500

i got interviewed:

Feral children at dinner parties, Aesop, and mammoth camp: The superb blog Wear the Old Coat interviewed me and that is what we ended up talking about. Mammoth camp is summer camp with mammoths. Feral children at dinner parties are a metaphor about my career. Aesop really monopolized the fable market and it’s surprising that he hasn’t had to deal with an anti-trust suit.

maybe next year i will become less of a dork happy new year...

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 20:36:20 -0500

maybe next year i will become less of a dork

happy new year y’all

abandonedporn: Abandoned Wooden Church - Vologda Oblast’,...

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 13:06:02 -0500

abandonedporn:

Abandoned Wooden Church - Vologda Oblast’, Russia

oh snap it’s friday night and this modular origami party...

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 01:19:50 -0500

oh snap it’s friday night and this modular origami party just got started

(module and design: merengue, lukasheva ekaterina)

blacklisted

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:43:00 -0500

i got blacklisted.

dad: hello?

me: yo.

dad, suspiciously: who is this?

me: it’s your son.

dad: oh!

dad, worriedly: is this about the car?

me: no.

dad: oh god. you’ve lost your health insurance.

me: no! it’s good news!

mom: ooh let’s do facetime!

dad: oof.

me: hi mom!

me: you kind of just came out of nowhere!

dad: i do not like facetime.

mom: PLEEEEASE

dad: fine.

a lengthy bout of typing and muttering.

dad: i’m not seeing—who is “BonerDog420”?

me: i have no idea what you’re even looking at.

dad: the only person on the list that i can call is “BonerDog420.” but that’s not you.

me: what list? how did you arrive at—you know what, never mind.

dad: maybe we should call him to make sure.

me: do what you need to do. can i just tell you about—

dad: hello? bonerdog?

mom: reid i don’t think you should EWW

dad: GOOD LORD.

mom: TURN IT OFF. TURN IT OFF.

dad: WOW.

me: maybe you guys can call me back!

* * * * *

me: hello?

mom: can you see us?

me: i can see you! hi!

mom: and—there you are!

me: hello!

dad: hello!

mom: um.

mom: honey, are you okay?

me: yeah! in fact—

mom: you look kind of gaunt. you look very thin and pale.

dad: you always forget that’s just how he looks.

me: yeah. mom, this is what i look like all the time.

mom: it’s not how you used to look. you used to—

me: my script is on the black list!

mom:

dad:

me: it’s #8! it’s in the top ten of the black list!

dad: is that good? that sounds bad.

mom: you look like you’re not eating enough.

me: i’m fine. guys. this is a really big deal.

me: the black list is a prestigious list of unproduced scripts. a bunch of executives put it together, and uh.

me: it’s a really good thing. it’s a great thing that happened to me, and my script, and my whole career.

mom: well, that’s good!

dad: that is good!

me: yeah!

dad: so does this mean you can get a job?

me: i have a job.

mom: he means a job where you get paid.

me: i have a job where i get paid. i write scripts now, and this means maybe i can sell them, and get paid. that’s my job. this is a real job now.

mom:

dad: so have you gotten paid to do any other scripts?

me: no, but—it’s a job. it’s a real job.

mom: well… yes. okay. then this is really good news!

dad: it’s very good news. we’re very proud of you.

mom: grandma will be so happy! you should call her right now.

dad: and then you should call bonerdog.

mom: oh reid. ugh.

dad: i have a feeling he’s going to be really, really excited about it.

mom: stop it.

me: dad, stop.

dad: maybe too excited.

mom: I SAID STOP IT.

Photo

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 12:57:35 -0500

awards season, unsettingly, begins

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:41:00 -0500

So it’s the beginning of awards season, and list season, and Me and Earl got on some lists that you should know about. Specifically, the Texas Library Association’s 2013 Tayshas Reading List, the Atlantic’s 25 Most Wonderful Book Covers list, and web.de’s 10 Best German Food-Blogs list.

Yeah. I’m very flattered by the first one, very happy for Chad Beckerman and Ben Wiseman vis-a-vis the second, and kind of nonplussed by the third, because the only conclusion I can draw from it is that in Germany, Me and Earl is less of a book and more of a food blog. How this happened, I have no idea and am afraid to find out. The writeup is unapologetically baffling: “Greg and Earl are addicts, cooking addicts. And regarding their addiction they post regularly to their blog, ‘Earl and I Regret Rachel’s Fatal Illness.’ They scold bitterly and discuss the latest restaurants and recipes. Caution: ham-optics!”

Yeah. At the end it says “Vorsicht: Schinken-Optik!” That means caution: ham-optics.

So now I don’t 100% know what to do.

"It’s a place where you see what is beneath the surface of an individual human being."

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 17:07:52 -0500

“It’s a place where you see what is beneath the surface of an individual human being.”

- Mitt Romney, on either the Olympics or the human-dissection chambers of the distant, chilly gas giant on which he was mitotically birthed.

p.s. if you are an american, for the love of god go vote right now

sigh

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:19:23 -0400

sigh

big events coming up

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:36:00 -0400

Long-suffering readers! I’ve got events coming up, and you are invited. Yeah! You are personally invited! By me! I would love to see you and catch up! And hear all about the kids! Especially little James! That kid is a hoot! I mean, he’s also kind of nuts! Remember last time when I was at your house? He pulled both of my shoelaces out of my shoes and then tied them together so that they were one big shoelace and then mostly ate it except that there was one end still sticking out of his mouth! And the other end was in his stomach being digested or something! I love that kid!

Note: You are invited to these events even if you are not my childhood friend Rebecca with two children including a fairly messed-up son named James.

Saturday, September 29th, I’m in Austin, Texas, for the Teen Book Festival. I’m in Corey Whaley’s Real Life is Messy panel, and I am extremely fired up.

But then the Saturday before that, the 22nd, I’m in Glendale, California, for the YA Rising Stars event with a bunch of incredible authors, and for that, too, I am deeply fired up.

But then the Saturday before that, the 15th: that would be my birthday. It’s kind of a big one. I would say maybe avoid Abbot Kinney Boulevard the night of the 15th, unless you want to get near-fatally high-fived and then monologued at about the wickedly fast and yet agonizingly slow flight from youth that we all, though we resist it, make.

See EVENTS for more information! I mean, more information about the events. Not about mortality. I mean probably there’s something in there about mortality too.

Christ.

pablog: BILL CLINTON PLAYS M83 Previously. (h/t Jaime)

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 17:35:14 -0400

pablog:

BILL CLINTON PLAYS M83

Previously.

(h/t Jaime)

Photo

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 00:23:12 -0400

Second Extremely Flattering Thing in My Hometown Newspaper

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 19:03:25 -0400

Second Extremely Flattering Thing in My Hometown Newspaper:

In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Carnegie Library’s Corey Wittig has written a review of Me & Earl & the Dying Girl that I have found moving enough to tattoo it, in its entirety, albeit in extremely small type, on my own face. We are talking basically microscopic type here. It’s going to look like a mole.

P.S. I moved to Los Angeles.

Me and Earl: Evolution of a Cover

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 11:07:00 -0400

Me and Earl: Evolution of a Cover:

Chad Beckerman describes the making of the cover to Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, with some looks at a few of the covers that might have been. An absorbing read! While you are reading it, I will be taking my road test for my driver’s license, because apparently I’m 16 years old still.

Extremely Flattering Thing in My Hometown Newspaper

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:39:16 -0400

Extremely Flattering Thing in My Hometown Newspaper:

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Sally Kalson has written an article that, I think we can all agree, should be required reading for the entire human population of the Earth.

Vote for Me & Earl!

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:57:32 -0400

Vote for Me & Earl!:

Humans of Earth. We have an opportunity here to make many, many people punch themselves in the face, specifically by voting for Me & Earl & the Dying Girl as the Best YA Novel Ever Written in this NPR contest. Please help throw the world of Western literature into chaos. Thank you for your time.

Review in the Illawarra Mercury

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 15:14:00 -0400

Review in the Illawarra Mercury:

Australia continues to make a strong and embarrassingly unopposed bid for Country That Is Aware That I Have Written A Book status with this piece from the Illawarra Mercury, which says very nice things about my book and quotes me at length. The downside is that when you quote me at length, you are probably quoting me talking about my dad and his passion for the song Funky Stuff, by Kool and the Gang.