UC's Department of English and Comparative Literature continues its celebration of the written word with the annual Emerging Fiction Writers Festival Wednesday-Friday at various places across UC's campus. As its moniker might suggest, the festival is featuring on-the-cusp authors like Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, whose most recent novel was a finalist for the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award and who was recently named one of The New Yorker's "20 Under 40" fiction writers.  

Leland Orser's 'Morning' is the type of film that often falls through the cracks in today's depressed distribution landscape: a small, challenging passionproject that makes no concessions to commercial cinema. It needs to find an audience via artist-nurturing outlets like the Cincinnati Film Festival, where 'Morning' makes its regional premiere with multiple showings at the Esquire Theatre. The festival runs through Oct. 16 at 11 area venues.  

The Oxford International Film Festival is about to embark on another transitional year. Now officially called the Cincinnati Film Festival following last year's move south, the fest features its largest slate of films to date (100) presented over nine days (Oct. 8-16) in 11 different venues across the Tristate, primarily at the Esquire Theatre in Clifton. The day-to-day duties of executive director have been taken over by Katharine Steele, a longtime local film supporter who's worked with Underneath Cincinnati and the Southern Ohio Filmmakers Association.  

The Cincinnati literary scene suffered a blow when Brock Clarke recently moved to Portland, Maine, to take a job at Bowdoin College. Through his work as a writer and educator at UC, he was a one-man literary juggernaut. Gone only a few months, it looks like he couldn't stay away: Clarke returns this week with a new novel under his arm and will explain it all (or at least some of it) Monday at Joseph-Beth Booksellers.  

Matt Reeves' remake of Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson's atmospheric vampire thriller — both of which are based on John Ajvide Lindqvist's horror novel 'Let the Right One In' — might not be as restrained or as poetic as its predecessor. Like the earlier film, though, 'Let Me In' generates unexpected empathy for its central duo, a pair of 12-year-olds who form an unexpected bond. Grade: B.  

Writing saved Augusten Burroughs life. Literally. As anyone who's read his 2002 memoir, Running with Scissors, will attest, the guy has led a challenging life informed by a deeply dysfunctional childhood that included a broken family, drugs, alcohol and a sexual relationship with a man twice his age. Burroughs, who comes to town Saturday for the annual Books By the Banks conference, talks about his meteoric rise to literary fame.  

Writing saved Augusten Burroughs' life. Literally. As anyone who's read his 2002 memoir, 'Running with Scissors,' will attest, the guy has led a challenging life informed by a deeply dysfunctional childhood that included a broken family, drugs, alcohol and a sexual relationship with a man twice his age. 'Scissors' transformed Burroughs into a literary sensation almost overnight, which came as a surprise to its author. He speaks about his writing experiences Saturday at Books By the Banks, the annual literary conference at downtown's Duke Energy Convention Center.  

In existence for just over a year, Surfer Blood seems to have arrived on the scene fully formed. The West Palm Beach, Fla., quartet's debut full-length, 'Astro Coast,' is an uncommonly cohesive set of songs informed (but never bound) by 25 years of Indie Rock touchstones and founder/frontdude John Paul Pitts' own unique vision. They play MidPoint on Friday.  

In existence for just over a year, Surfer Blood seems to have arrived on the scene fully formed. The Florida quartet's debut full-length, 'Astro Coast,' is an uncommonly cohesive set of songs informed (but never bound) by 25 years of Indie Rock touchstones and founder/frontdude John Paul Pitts’ own unique vision, which includes everything from the album's distinctive visual design to its relationship-delving lyrics. Surfer Blood performs Friday at The Cincinnati Club downtown.  

Welcome to CityBeat’s annual Cool Issue, wherein we highlight “cool” people, places and events during the “cooler” fall season. But what exactly makes something “cool?” Like anything else in our rapidly fracturing world, opinions and standards of “cool” vary greatly depending on whom you ask. The theme of this year’s Cool Issue is “Enduring Cool,” things that have remained unique and vital for a least decade or more.