More Turbulence at Mars Hill: Another elder, director of worship Dustin Kensrue, has resigned. Warren Throckmorton says he is the fourth of nine elders who asked Pastor Mark Driscoll to submit to an "elder-directed restoration process" to step down. Kensrue, who was also the leader of the band Thrice, warns current church members in his resignation letter: "Your pastors, who are on the ground with you, who know you, who care for you, who pray with you, and in whom you trust – these men have essentially no voice and no vote in what happens with your church as a whole, and the leadership is actively trying to limit the voice that they do have." Stay tuned for more fallout from Pastor Driscoll's rough year. There's surely more to come.

Washington State Book Awards Finalists Announced: The Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library has issued a list of the 2014 finalists for the Washington State Book Awards. The list includes Stranger favorites Jess Walter, Rebecca Hoogs, Sherman Alexie, Nicole Hardy, Peter Bagge, Jonathan Raban, and Steven Arntson. You can find a full list after the jump. The awards will be given out at the downtown library on Friday, October 10, at 7 p,m.

Want to Work in Books? Ballard's wonderful Secret Garden Books is now hiring a part-time bookseller.

Want to Work in Newspapers? Tough. USA Today laid off 60 to 70 employees today. Romanesko was told about half the layoffs were in the newsroom.

Poet Observes Bill Clinton's Leaves of Grass Habit: Local poet (and 2014 Washington State Book Award finalist) Ed Skoog has published two new poems at fruitapulp. One of the poems is about politics and the Macarena; the other one is titled "Adam and Eve Fight About Money."

Burning Man Is Galt's Gulch, Apparently: Grover Norquist went to Burning Man and he thought it was a solid example of libertarian thought.

News Anchor Fathers Peter Pan: Oh, hey, here's a thing: It's the first press photo of Allison Williams as Peter Pan in NBC's upcoming live musical production.


It's a Weird World: Here are Thomas Pynchon's handwritten edits on the script of his Simpsons cameo.

"There are amateur pornos made at a higher quality. There are Chihuahuas wearing better, more believable wigs.”: Lifetime's forthcoming Brittany Murphy biopic sounds awesome!

Fiction
· "Temple Grove" by Scott Elliott (University of Washington Press)
· "Hild" by Nicola Griffith (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
· "Half as Happy" by Gregory Spatz (Engine Books)
· "We Live in Water" by Jess Walter (Harper Perennial)
· "Wilderness" by Lance Weller (Bloomsbury)

Poetry
· "What I’ve Stolen, What I’ve Earned" by Sherman Alexie (Hanging Loose Press)
· "Self-Storage" by Rebecca Hoogs (Stephen F. Austin University Press)
· "Through the Second Skin" by Derek Sheffield (Orchises Press)
· "Rough Day" by Ed Skoog (Copper Canyon Press)
· "Pacific Walkers" by Nance van Winckel (University of Washington Press)

Biography/Memoir
· "Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story" by Peter Bagge (Drawn & Quarterly)
· "Confessions of a Latter-Day Virgin" by Nicole Hardy (Hyperion Books)
· "The Family: Three Journeys Into the Heart of the Twentieth Century" by David Laskin (Viking Books)
· "Driving Home: An American Journey" by Jonathan Raban (Sasquatch Books)

History/General Nonfiction
· "The Boy Who Shot the Sheriff: The Redemption of Herbert Niccolls Jr." by Nancy Bartley (University of Washington Press)
· "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown (Viking Books)
· "The Mushroom Hunters: On the Trail of an Underground America" by Langdon Cook (Ballantine Books)
· "Wolves in the Land of Salmon" by David Moskowitz (Timber Press)

Scandiuzzi Children’s Book Award Finalists
Picture Book
· "Frog Song" by Brenda Guiberson, illustrated by Gennady Spirin (Henry Holt)
· "Stardines Swim High Across the Sky and Other Poems" by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Carin Berger (Greenwillow Books)
· "Once Upon a Memory" by Nina Laden, illustrated by Renata Liwska (Little, Brown and Company)
· "Who Put the Cookies in the Cookie Jar?" by George Shannon, illustrated by Julie Paschkis (Henry Holt)
· "What Do You Do With an Idea?" by Kobi Yamada, illustrated by Mae Besom (Compendium Kids)

Books for Early Readers (ages 6 to 8), Middle Readers (ages 9 to 12), and Young Adults (ages 13 to 18)
· "The Wrap-Up List" by Steven Arntson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
· "Wise Young Fool" by Sean Beaudoin (Little, Brown and Company)
· "And Then, Story Starters" by M.H. Clark (Compendium, Inc.)
· "Jumped In" by Patrick Flores-Scott (Henry Holt)
· "The League" by Thatcher Heldring (Delacorte Press)
· "Duke" by Kirby Larson (Scholastic Press)
· "The Sasquatch Escape" by Suzanne Selfors (Little, Brown and Company)