The Harry Ransom Center has acquired novelist J.M. Coetzee’s archives (at an estimated $1.5 million), making him the ninth Nobel laureate to be housed at the HRC -- a lofty list that includes T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and Doris Lessing. The archives contain over 150 boxes and filing cabinets of journals, manuscripts (including two Man Booker Prize winning novels: Life & Times of Michael K and Disgrace), as well as letter correspondence, interviews, digital and audiovisual materials, and family photographs covering a fifty-year career. more ›

• U.S. envoy's N. Korea trip brings no commitment on nuclear talks.
• Defense Secretary Robert Gates predicts new sanctions against Iran.
• Obama garners rare unified praise for Nobel speech.

• President Obama accepts Nobel Peace Prize.
• You won't be able to Facebook Stalk the chick that dumped you anymore.
• Yeehaw! Get yer guns out boys! (Oh, wait. Maybe not.)

• Civilian goals still unmet in Afghanistan
• Two Americans share Nobel economics prize; this is the first year a female has been awarded the prize for economics.
• Insurance industry advocacy group claims premiums will rise under healthcare reform

• President Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize.
• NASA's strike on moon worked, mission official says.
• House votes to expand hate crimes definition.

• Three Americans share Nobel Prize for medicine
• Iran playing nice?
• Foreign frenemy policy: Obama delays meeting with Dalai Lama

Watching the presidential primary unfold these last few weeks, the thought has often occurred to us: "When will Obama and Clinton shut up about saving the people of Darfur from displacement and genocide, and start talking about the important stuff, like plaigarized speeches and superdelegates?" Haven't had the same reaction? Tonight, a very different kind of politics will be on display at the B. Iden Payne Theatre at the University of Texas. Our city will play host to one of the great voices for democracy and social justice in post-colonial Africa. more ›

J. M. Coetzee is probably the only Nobel Prize winner for Literature with a degree from UT. He spent several years in Austin in the 1960’s, playing intramural cricket, protesting the Vietnam War in the pages of the Daily Texan, and writing a dissertation on Sam Beckett’s novels. A few years later, he returned to South Africa, the country of his birth, and started writing one amazing book after another. (He hasn’t really stopped since then.) He’s visited Austin a few times since then, including a stint in 1995 as a visiting professor at UT. more ›

That's right: it's time to heat up your winter nights again, with the 14th season of FronteraFest. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, or Mi Casa es su Teatro -- FronteraFest is five weeks of alternative, offbeat, new, and just plain off-the-wall fringe theatre presented by Hyde Park Theatre and Austin Script Works. For complete FronteraFest 2007 information, including times and locations for the Short Fringe, the Long Fringe and Mi Casa es su... more ›

Someone other than the government might have your census information. Speaking of the government, the feds allowed the Red Cross to visit the "high value detainees" at Guantanamo. The Yankees pitcher who loved flying was killed yesterday in a fiery plane crash in Manhattan. Gothamist kept us updated throughout the afternoon. No more cursive in schools? What about graphologists? Won't somebody think of them? Students at Gallaudet University are so upset with their proposed... more ›

You may remember that druing SXSW we got a chance to interview Turk Pipkin to discuss his new documentary Nobelity. And you may remember how we said that there would be another screening in April. Well, that day is today. Head over to the Paramount this evening to see the movie about which Harry Knowles said, "Absolutely brilliant. This is one of the most important films of this year or any year." Turk Pipkin... more ›

Turk Pipkin is a Texas original who has built a colorful and successful career as a writer and actor. After appearing in dozens of productions and writing several books, Pipkin decided to focus his creative energies on an issue of global importance. Through his interviews with nine Nobel laureates, Pipkin’s documentary Nobelity, which premieres today at SXSW (Paramount, 7pm), focuses on the most pressing problems in our world today and how we can attempt... more ›

-Nearly two dozen of Austin's finest civic leaders gathered together today to declare their opposition to November 8th's Prop. 2 measure, which would effectively define marriage as solely between "one man and one woman." Among many others, Mayor Will Wynn let it be known that "a fundamental cultural characteristic of Texas is that we mind our own business" - something Great Hills Baptist Church pastor Michael Lewis was unaware of when he decried the... more ›

-Some organization called Safe Kids Worldwide voted us the safest metropolitan area for kids. And proving why we're probably not the hippest metropolitan area for kids, the entire student body of Oak Springs Elementary celebrated ... by making 300 children walk two blocks from ACC to their their school. Back in our day we called that exercise. And in unrelated news, that assistant principal from Bastrop High remains under investigation for possession of child... more ›