Newsweek ended its print edition last month, but the magazine’s first digital-only cover story was written by the great author Tom Wolfe.

You can already read “Eunuchs of the Universe: Tom Wolfe on Wall Street Today” online. The article examines the state of contemporary Wall Street, opening with a visit from “our century’s first tycoon of IT,” Mark Zuckerberg.

Here is an excerpt: “our man is only 27 years old and attired as a tycoon of our time… His shirt is a gray T-shirt, one of the 30-some gray T-shirts he has on hand in order to make sure he is clad in the same rebelliously fashion-defying teenager garb every day… and over it, a dark-gray sweatshirt with a hood, a garment known familiarly as a hoodie. From this day, May 7, 2012, forward, the hoodie becomes his symbol, his trademark, his battle standard … As anyone who has read this far knows before we can say it, his company is called Facebook, and he is .”

Nancy Huston has won the Literary Review’s annual Bad Sex in Literature Award for her novel, Infrared.

Follow this link to read an excerpt from the novel. Below, we’ve linked to free samples of all the books on the list. Now in its 20th year, the award continues a tradition of “gentle chastisement of the worst excesses of the literary novel.”

Here’s more from the journal: “For a confessional account on Bad Sex judging by Literary Review‘s senior editor Jonathan Beckman, read his piece in the Financial Times. You will also be able to read a more detailed report on this year’s shortlist in Literary Review‘s December / January double issue. For snippets from the shortlist, follow Literary Review‘s twitter account, @lit_review. The tweets are tagged as #LRBadSex2012.”

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Last night the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) honored both Poetry and Harper’s with National Magazine Awards.

Poetry received the General Excellence (Print) category for Literary, Political and Professional Magazines. The April, September, and October issues were singled out in recognition. Harper’s won the Reporting category for Scott Horton‘s “The Guantanamo Suicides.” More literary winners follow below…

Here’s more from the release: “Known as the Ellies, for the Alexander Calder stabile ‘Elephant’ given to each winner, the awards were hosted by Katie Couric, anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News, and were attended by more than 700 magazine editors and publishers. The sold-out event was highlighted by the presentation of the Creative Excellence Award to Tom Wolfe by Jann S. Wenner, editor and publisher of Rolling Stone and member of the Magazine Editors’ Hall of Fame.”

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University Archives will auction a note that J.D. Salinger wrote rejecting filmmaker Hubert Cornfield‘s request to adapt Catcher in the Rye.

Salinger wrote: “I appreciate and respect your ardor, but for the present I see my novel as a novel and only as a novel. Should I change my mind in the future–which is extremely doubtful–I very probably would take on any casting and directing chores myself. Thank you for your interest and please take this as absolutely final.”

Salinger, who passed away in January 2010, never made his directorial debut. He will be the subject of the two-hour Shane Salerno documentary, Salinger. Famous names involved with the project include journalist Tom Wolfe, biographer A. Scott Berg, and Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman. (Via Flavorpill)

8:10 Master of Ceremonies Andy Borowitz from The New Yorker is on stage and making jokes. He just called eBooks the bastard cousin of the book and he compared publishing to a Carnival Cruise Ship. “It is on fire. The toilets don’t work. And we are surviving day to day on poptarts and spam.”

8:14 John Escott is on stage to present the The Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. Elmo has joined him on stage. The winner is Joan Ganz Cooney, the creator of Sesame Street.

8:21 Cooney thanks the literary community for “saving civilization” and says that no game experience can replicate the experience of having someone read to a child.

8:24 Tina Brown is now taking the stage after Andy Borowitz just called The Daily Beast/Newsweek merger “Weak Beast.”

8:28 Brown just presented the Distinguished Contribution to American Letters award to Tom Wolfe.

8:34 Tom Wolfe got his start writing obituaries for a small town newspaper. He came to New York on the last bus out of town with a bunch of misfits. He is telling his life story, in what has promised would be 6 minutes, but the clock is ticking.

8:40 Tom Wolfe is singing The Girl From Ipanema and talking about his first newspaper assignment in New York interviewing a mobster.

8:44 Tom Wolfe jumped from gangsters to Ken Kesey and hippies. “We are in an age where you can’t make this stuff up.” Um, nope.

8:46 Now he isreminiscing about The Black Panthers.

8:47 And now he is talking about Sinclair Lewis. Who wrote about how to write and said, “First sit down.” Tom Wolfe would like to add, “First leave the building.”

8:49 Dinner is being served as we await the 2010 Award Winners.

Earlier this week, the Audio Publishers Association (APA) announced the nominees for the prestigious 2010 Audies awards. The nominees were chosen from 1,056 different entries.

The winners will be revealed at the Audies Gala on May 25, 2010 in the Museum of the City of New York. Here are the finalists in the best fiction category, a fascinating snapshot of the audiobook industry. The rest of the nominees are listed after the jump.

The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe, Narrated by Joe Barrett, Blackstone Audio
Face of Betrayal, by Lis Wiehl and April Henry, Narrated by Pam Turlow, Oasis Audio
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, Narrated by Jenna Lamia, Bahni Turpin, Octavia Spencer, and Cassandra Campbell, Penguin Audio
The Pigman, by Paul Zindel, Narrated by Eden Riegel and Charlie McWade, Graymalkin Media
Slumdog Millionaire, by Vikas Swarup, narrated by Christopher Simpson, BBC Audiobooks America

If you want to read more, check out The Top Audiobooks Stories of 2009 post by Susan Dunman.

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Portfolio Magazine, the glossy business publication that featured pieces by literary-minded journalists like Michael Lewis and Tom Wolfe, has closed.

Editor-in-Chief Joanne Lipman broke the news to staffers, media reporter Jeff Bercovici reports on his Portfolio blog: “Lipman said the magazine is ahead of its business plan on various business metrics, and also noted that it won a National Magazine Award last year after publishing only a handful of issues, a rare accomplishment. But a sharp and extended downturn in ad revenue has made success elusive.”

In December 2008, Lewis (the author of “Liar’s Poker”) wrote the cover story: “The End.” In May 2007, Wolfe (the author of “The Bonfire of the Vanities”) wrote “The Pirate Pose” for the magazine.

In some of the trippiest adaptation news to surface in years, both Jack Black and Woody Harrelson are on the shortlist to play novelist Ken Kesey in a film version of Tom Wolfe‘s classic examination of hippie culture, “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.”

According to Rolling Stone, the film will be guided by Gus Van Sant, the director of “Milk” and the literary-minded “Finding Forrester.” Van Sant and Kesey were friends in the 1970s, and the author gave the director his blessing.

The article quotes one of Kesey’s close friends, Carolyn Garcia, on Harrelson’s groovy visit to the writer’s compound. Dig it: “They went out into the field and had a pretty good mind meld … I just know he could play the role.”