"It is mysterious and confounding to see a severely autistic nonspeaker perform acts of scholarship and fiction writing if you don’t presume intelligence in a disabled person. I have been using the same green board since I was in middle school and I find the letters and colors very calming." - The Atlantic
“Axel Springer’s planned £575 million takeover of Telegraph Media Group has been approved by the UK Government. It is still awaiting regulatory approval in Ireland and Austria (due to there being a lower threshold for competition concerns in those countries although there is no expectation of any impact there).” - Press Gazette (UK)
This book is Caroline Bicks’s account of what happened when King gave her permission to spend a year in his archive, poring over the drafts of five of his most popular novels, including Pet Sematary, The Shining and Carrie. Bicks’s particular aim is to spot what she calls King’s “biblio‑magic” in action. - The Guardian
“The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, the nonprofit parent organization of The Baltimore Banner, reached an agreement with Block Communications to acquire the I, which was slated to shut down in May.” - Nieman Lab
So far, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is the fourth large one (not including The Philadelphia Inquirer, which remains for-profit itself though it is owned by a nonprofit organization). - AP
“The number of LGBTQ+-focused bookstores in the U.S. has slowly but steadily increased over the past five years. While this new generation of booksellers all give a nod to their predecessors, they’ve also made a point of doing things differently.” - Publishers Weekly
An English professor burns the midnight oil talking to Microsoft Copilot about Shakespeare, Dickinson, Hawthorne, and a play he’s been working on—and comes away deeply impressed by its literary insights. - Quillette
“The new imprint will develop new publishing content based on properties from Paramount’s various divisions, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, ... Star Trek, and Yellowstone, complementing the work of its licensed publishers. … The imprint will also allow the company to generate original intellectual properties with potential for extension into entertainment and experiences.” - Publishers Weekly
Our current age of comics is one in which comics can be consumed through global digital platforms like Marvel Unlimited, Webtoons, Shonen Jump and so on, all without readers and fans ever purchasing a paper copy. - The Conversation
“It is good that we know what to avoid, but we don’t really know what to do either. We’re uncomfortable, and so what we tend to do is decorously fade to black, and rejoin our characters when they are finished. The next day, if possible.” - The Guardian (UK)
Helen DeWitt’s life was simply too busy, and intense, for her to do what the $175,000 Windham-Campbell Writing Prize required, she says. - The New York Times
Literary ridicule used to sting politicians into shame. Now they don't read books, don't care about cultural criticism, and certainly don't lose sleep over clever wordplay. Writers are shadowboxing with ghosts. — New York Review of Books
As traditional literary criticism gasps its last, so goes reasoned public discourse. David Bell chronicles how digital age killed the gatekeepers—and maybe critical thinking itself. — Liberties Journal
Because the cells that make up the mind are material, they can degrade or die. When neurons degrade, starve, or die, the essential connections our minds make to our muscles start to sputter. - LA Review of Books
The Originality.ai reports on his draft, which he shared with The Times, showed that adding or deleting even just a few sentences produced wildly different results. “What if publishers or agents start running these A.I. tools on everybody?” Bricio said. “Everybody is going to walk on eggshells from now on.” - The New York Times
