Tom Hanks — yes, Oscar-winning movie star Tom Hanks — will publish a short story collection with Knopf, the publisher announced Monday. The book of short fiction is still untitled, and its release date has not yet been set.

One thing is known about the book: Its stories will be inspired by Hanks’ collection of typewriters.

In a release, Hanks said, “I’ve been collecting typewriters for no particular reason since 1978 – both manual and portable machines dating from the thirties to the nineties. The stories are not about the typewriters themselves, but rather, the stories are something that might have been written on one of them.”

Last month, Hanks published his first short story ever in no less than the New Yorker. “Alan Bean Plus Four” was said to be inspired by Hanks’ film and television work around the space program — “Apollo 13” and “From the Earth to the Moon” — and not a typewriter. (Maybe a typewriter too. We will see). [More at source]