It was neither the first online encyclopedia—Britannica had a web presence by 1999—nor even the first that users could edit. Rather, its vitality arose from the community of obsessives whom it attracted, and its decline has coincided with the market’s capture of their creativity. - The New Yorker
Actually, in America, the reading of books is up. Sales of print books have increased nearly twenty-five per cent from a decade ago. The number of independent bookstores in the United States has climbed steeply since 2009, with a seventy-per-cent increase since 2020.
“The Prix Pascal will open for submissions on 2 November, inviting French-language writers to submit manuscripts alongside an initial prompt of no more than 100 words and a technical account of the language model and generation process used. The competition is open to non-professional writers and those working in the literary sector.” - Firstpost
“YouTube has weighed bundling the product in its ad-free YouTube Premium service, which starts at $15.99 a month and includes access to music and videos, the people said. Like other streaming platforms vying for consumers’ attention, YouTube has packaged offerings together to make lucrative subscriptions more appealing.” - The Wall Street Journal (MSN)
As AI-generated writing floods the internet, more people are trying to detect which creators are using such tools to spin up copy. That means writers penning all their own work—and people who acknowledge using chatbots for help—are trying to master something they never worried about before: how to sound human. - The Wall Street Journal
Fear spreads its message more quickly - but it also paralyzes most people to inaction, exactly not what most writers of climate fiction would prefer. - The Guardian (UK)
Ouf. "Is it wistful or cruel, the movies looking at poets only to find them pitiable, even or especially when they’re howling at the moon? The last artists who can’t make money, who have a pressing and practical concern about old books and what’s in them." - LitHub
"The prize is open to unpublished manuscripts, with the option of submitting under a pseudonym, and Allende entered under the name Luz Ventura, with the fictional title Los que faltan." - The Guardian (UK)
It's definitely got big, not to mention packed and chatty, fêtes. "In an era when book auctions are held regularly over email, it’s that sense of community that keeps the publishers coming back." - The New York Times
“The Ukrainian response has been a renewal of patriotism and engagement with national culture, along with enthusiastic defiance: the queues outside bookshops that formed in response to … the destruction, the orders that flooded in for e-books, or customers content to wait months for physical copies.” - The Bookseller (UK)
I’m not the only author to have found myself stuck in a Zoom book club with fake readers. Countless writers with published books have been receiving invitations from reading communities that start to unravel after a basic Google search. - The Dial
Because these scammers have hit on an M.O. to which writers are particularly susceptible, that’s why. And there are a lot of hopeful writers out there, so the scammers can ask for small amounts of money (making it look low-risk to the targets), and make bank on volume. - The Dial
the stylistic choice to write in lowercase is a dead horse that’s been beaten, flogged, and beaten again—what my generation calls ran through. and yet, it’s having a moment. i had to investigate. - Wired
Fragmentation is frequently associated with the crisis of representation in 20th-century literature. Carson reveals that the ancient textual tradition already contains discontinuities that resist the modern desire for completeness. - The Conversation
Among the titles involved were The Handmaid’s Tale, The Kite Runner, and a cookbook. Outraged students protested. And, mind you, this was after Minnesota passed a law forbidding book bans in public schools. - The Minnesota Star Tribune
