WORDS

In A Country With Almost No Actual Murders, Writers Have To Make Mysterious Deaths Believable

The authors’ "plots have to be built on buried grudges and horrifying secrets hidden in the fog and the fjords. Otherwise, how else could they convincingly kill off their characters?” - The New York Times

This Small Publisher Will Now Only Accept Pitches By Phone

The strategies to defeat AI are getting, well, old-school: “We’re re-humanizing the process with a dedicated hotline (which has the added benefit of weeding out supposed reporters who aren’t in the habit of ringing up strangers.” - Nieman Lab

California Has The Publishing Rizz Right Now

But it’s a bit nervewracking: “I feel like for a small press you really need to, not just catch a break, but catch a break every time, … if you want to last.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

How Winnie Became The Pooh Bear, A Century Ago

“Sometimes words need pictures and pictures need words. When they find each other, characters spring to life.” - NPR

Writing Is Hard, And Young Writers Are Getting Extra Discouraged

“They’re simultaneously struggling to figure out if they need to use AI to keep up in today’s competitive industry—or eschew it altogether in order to maintain trust.” - Fast Company

Orchids Made Charles Darwin Who He Was

“Darwin had long been interested in orchids, possibly influenced by the borderline sexual love his grandfather, Erasmus, felt for them and put into his writings.” - LitHub

More Schools Are Teaching Cursive Again. Should They Be?

Pennsylvania and Florida legislators argue, for example, that an informed citizenry needs to be able to read historical documents, which are often written in cursive script. - Washington Post

Texas Is Coming After The “Filthy, Dirty” Books In School Libraries, Says Lt. Gov.

“Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, during a Wednesday press conference, threatened to take over public school districts that don’t remove ‘obscene books’ from their library shelves.” - San Antonio Current

Utah Bans Novel Adapted Into Movie “Precious” From Schools

“’Push’ by Sapphire got cut across the state Wednesday after the Davis, Granite and Washington County school districts removed it, bringing the total number of books banned from public schools to 37.” Current Utah law holds that if three county school districts ban a book, the title is then barred statewide. - The Salt Lake Tribune

In Russia: The Publishers’ Plot

In May 2025, ten people affiliated with Eksmo, Russia’s publishing behemoth, were detained in Moscow. Three of them, Pavel Ivanov, Dmitry Protopopov and Artyom Vakhlyaev, were charged with ‘organising activities of an extremist organisation’. Their crime was distributing LGBT-themed books. - London Review of Books

Why The Closing Of Harvard’s Writing Center Matters

A Harvard faculty member who requested anonymity so that he could speak openly told me he worried that the elimination of the center could be seen as part of a broader trend of “real boosterism” of AI on campus—one that students feel acutely. - The Atlantic

How Melancholy Became Hungary’s Literary Brand

 Melancholy, an affinity with oblivion without a concrete cause, suffuses the Hungarian fiction translated for foreign audiences over the past 30 years, from the tortured tales of Sándor Márai to the taut novels of Magda Szabó. - The Guardian

Did Smartphones Really Kill Reading?

It is tempting to blame smartphones for this condition and conclude that some kind of ban would solve the problem. But a historical perspective shows that this is not enough: reading was in decline before the smartphone appeared. - LitHub

New Website Tracks Author Events

LitCircle’s database will track author readings and signings, as well as book clubs and literary festivals across the country, and alert readers to upcoming literary programming in their vicinity. George partnered with Patrick DiMichele, a technology consultant and a longtime Volumes customer, to build the platform. - Publishers Weekly

Penguin Random House Suspends New Mamdani Biography Following Plagiarism Accusations Against Author

The publisher has halted promotion and public sales of The Revolutionary: Zohran Mamdani and the Remaking of American Politics by Ross Barkan in the wake of allegations that the author plagiarized parts of numerous columns he wrote as a freelancer for New York magazine. - The Washington Post (MSN)

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