What are you reading now? I am reading Chourmo, a novel by Jean-Claude Izzo (I am actually reading the Italian translation from the original French), the second volume of his Marseilles Trilogy. I won’t say more about the book now, because I may choose to feature it in the new edition of Novel Food, the culinary/literary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I co-launched a few seasons ago.

A good part of the enjoyment I derive from our event is choosing the literary work about which to write. Lisa and I exchange emails about our evolving plans and there is always some trepidation around the choice of both reading material and cooking project. Of course, another good portion of the enjoyment is to receive your contributions, through which I learn about interesting literary works and delicious dishes.

So, if you like to read and you like to cook, this event is perfectly tailored for you. We are looking forward to learning about a published literary work (a novel, novella, short story, memoir, bio, poem) that provided you with culinary inspiration.

This is a fun event: you read, you cook, you write and at the end you also get a nice reading list, which can be easily turned into a plan for enriching your library.

Here are the simple rules for participating in Novel Food:

1. Prepare a dish of your choosing that has a connection to a published literary work (novel, novella, short story, memoir, bio, poem).
2. Publish a post about it on your blog by the end of Monday September 20, 2010 (midnight, Pacific Time), referencing the Novel Food event. Include a link to this or to Lisa’s announcement. If you wish, you can use the Novel Food logo.
3. Send an e-mail to Lisa (champaigntaste AT gmail DOT com) or to me (simosite AT mac DOT com) and include your name, blog name and blog address, and a permanent link to your post. Please, include the words “Novel Food” in the email subject, so we can more easily retrieve the message in our inbox.
4. Non-English submissions are fine. If possible, include an introduction in English.

If you don’t have a blog, send us an email telling us about the dish, the literary work that inspired it, and, if you have it, a picture of what you made: we will add it to the roundup as well.

Lisa and I are planning to do the roundup just in time to celebrate the fall equinox.

Note #1: If you don’t receive an answer to your email or a comment on your post within two days of sending me or Lisa the email, please contact us again: sometimes email messages get lost in cyberspace.

Note #2: If you follow this link, you will be able to browse my portion of the roundup of all previous editions. In each post, you will find a link to Lisa’s portion of the roundup.