Update: Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion ( To Be Released 3/20/12)

Pablo Hidalgo, Lucasfilm's on-line content developer for Starwars.com, gave a recent interview to http://korpil.net/ .  Its a wide ranging interview, but for Star Wars novel fans, we got a great update on the new Essential Guide that is going to be covering the written material in the EU, primarily novels.

It is called: "Star Wars: The Essential Reader's Companion."

16. The announcement of the Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion sounds like a great addition for those who don’t know how to delve into the Star Wars Expanded Universe. What can you tell us about this book?

It’s still coming together. In a nutshell, it’s basically Star Wars: The Comics Companion but for prose fiction. A high-level summary of all the novels, short stories and young reader novels in a chronological reading order, with what I hope are interesting footnotes that track the evolution of the expanded universe. A big bonus is that there will be all new art to depict characters and events that have yet to be depicted.

17. The addition of new illustrations for previously non pictured characters is simply great, do you have a list of the artist who will be collaborating with this project?

Not yet. I would expect a lot of the artists who have contributed to Essential Guides in the past to be onboard, joined by new ones as well.

-Full Interview by Korpil.net

Previously we had received this blurb from Sue Rostoni's SW.com blog:

March 20, 2012 - Star Wars: The Essential Reader's Companion by Pablo Hidalgo. Trade paperback. A super guide to the novels, short stories, e-books, etc. With new illustrations of characters you've only read about. This will be organized chronologically according to in-universe dates and written out-of-universe so that it won't be like the Essential Chronology but more like a non-fiction guide to fiction, with side-bars calling out related comics and events.

http://blogs.starwars.com/eeusuestornii/15