ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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Howard University Is On A Mission To Preserve The History Of Black American Newspapers

The project is digitizing U.S. newspapers that are are now in the public domain (after 95 years). The center also has permission to place online certain titles still under copyright. Other U.S. Black papers still under copyright are available on site, as are publications from the Caribbean and Africa. - The Christian Science Monitor

Giller Prize 2026 Goes To “Pick A Colour” By Souvankham Thammavongsa

This is the second time that the Laotian-Canadian author has won Canada’s top literary award; she is only the fourth author to do so, after Esi Edugyan, M.G. Vassanji and Alice Munro. - Canadian Press (Yahoo!)

The Icelandic Language Is In Danger Of Dying Out

“Having this language that is spoken by so very few, I feel that we carry a huge responsibility to actually preserve that. I do not personally think we are doing enough to do that,” she said, not least because young people in Iceland “are absolutely surrounded by material in English, on social media and other media”. - The Guardian

“Parasocial” Is Cambridge Dictionary’s 2025 Word Of The Year

Taylor and Travis, podcast hosts, even chatbots — this has been a year full of intense but one-sided relationships between some ordinary individuals and celebrities (or pieces of code) they’ve never actually met. - Cambridge University Press

What Explains Boomers’ Addiction To Ellipses?

There’s an extensive online discourse on the Baby Boomer generation’s penchant for ellipses. ‘OK . . .’ ‘Thanks . . .’ ‘See you next week . . .’ Sometimes they’re a playful way to build suspense, sometimes a form of passive aggression, and sometimes they relay an implication. - Granta

The Latest Threat To Authors And Books

What is “Take Back the Classroom” - and how did it get so prominent, so quickly? - BookRiot

Writers On The Gulf Between Books And Screen

Viet Thanh Nguyen: “When poets write, the only thing that it costs a poet is their life. ... But when you make a TV show or a film, it costs tens of millions of dollars, and then everybody cares.” - Los Angeles Review of Books

African Publishers And “The Wakanda Problem”

"When we listen to audiobooks produced in the West, they have a Wakandan accent," said Eghosa Imasuen, executive director of Narrative Landscape Press in Lagos, Nigeria. "Nobody talks like that on the continent." - Publishers Weekly

Hilary Mantel’s Most Notorious Short Story Is Now Being Staged

“’The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher – August 6th 1983’ was published in The Guardian in 2014 and gave the title to Mantel’s collection of short stories that year. … Billed as a psychological thriller, the adaptation is by Alexandra Wood and will be directed by John Young at (Liverpool’s) Everyman Theatre in May.” - The Guardian

China Cracks Down On Gay Male Romance Novels That Young Women Adore

“Fans of the popular danmei same-sex romance genre, written and read mainly by straight women, say the Chinese government is carrying out the largest crackdown yet on it, effectively neutering the enjoyment. In the world of fantasy, danmei is relatively straightforward: Two men stand in for idealized relationships, from chaste to erotic.” - AP

The Book That Shaped The Modern Revival Of Wicca

In 1899, Charles Godfrey Leland published, with the help of Roma Lister, Aradia, or the gospel of the witches, which purported to record an ancient tradition of female-led sorcery in Italy. In the 1950s, “mother of Wicca” Doreen Valiente used the book to shape Wicca as it exists today. - The Public Domain Review

University Decides ROI On Investment In Its University Press Is Insufficient And Closes It. Others To Follow?

Bucknell University Press is on track to shut down by the end of this fiscal year. Demise of the press is raising broader questions about the future of university publishing as higher education institutions across the country face financial hardship and pressure to prove their return on investment to an increasingly skeptical public. - InsideHigherEd

Spotify Launches A “Catch You Up” Feature For Audiobooks, To Summarize What You’ve Read So Far

The company likens the feature, called Recaps, to a “previously on” segment at the start of episodes in a TV series. - The Verge

Striking British Library Workers Expose Dire Low Pay Consequences

According to their union, they are offered pay deals so dire that many of them work multiple jobs and live in substandard housing. Seventy-one per cent of respondents to a union survey find their salary insufficient to meet basic needs. - The Guardian

Some US Bookstores Have Set Up Food Banks To Help Cut-Off SNAP Recipients

“With the (federal government) shutdown creating anxiety and uncertainty for those who depend on government aid, many independent bookstores took on a new role as hubs for food donations.” - The New York Times

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