For the last 18 months, patrickdewitt.net has hosted the first chapter of an anonymous author’s unpublished novel, and an offer to return the site to deWitt if his agent and publisher agree to read the squatter’s manuscript. (Literary Hub)

Talking point: The 2011 Western picaresque The Sisters Brothers earned deWitt a Governor General’s Literary Award, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, a spot on the Man Booker Prize shortlist, a film deal and the attention of the squatter, who was “full of scotch” when he decided to claim deWitt’s lapsed domain. Most online ransom efforts seek money; the squatter, who gave anonymous interviews to LitHub and Willamette Week, seeks only attention. “I kinda thought I could blackmail his publishers into reading it,” the squatter said. “Turns out I was wrong. No one gave a f—.” The squatter hasn’t heard from anybody in the publishing world. DeWitt did not respond to the Week’s request for comment. The squatter, meanwhile, seems resigned to their failure, admitting, “I don’t think [deWitt] even uses the internet.”