Patrice Lawrence "has a practical vision for her laureateship. ‘To change policy you need evidence,’ she says. ‘We say stories work, let’s show how they work.’” - The Guardian (UK)
“Hemingway is etched into the landscape of Pamplona. Hotels and bars have busts of him or signs up that he was once there. Outside the Pamplona bull ring, ... a huge banner hangs in honor of the novel, including a quote that shows how the festival left the writer speechless.” - AP
The Emperors’ courts did, in fact, document their history carefully, according to a procedure which was followed more-or-less faithfully from the first century BCE onward. That’s not to say that the result was either comprehensive or impartial. - Aeon
“While nothing that he writes is of much interest, Nazir himself is shaping up to be an oddly appealing character. He’s a cultural chancer.” (And wow, Commonwealth Prize jury, what were you doing?) - Slate
The problem is that not only does AI train on human writing, but humans are stylistically influenced by AI, the interplay creating a kind of linguistic hall of mirrors. Short of an author admitting it, it’s hard to say for certain whether an individual piece of writing is AI or not. That uncertainty is a recipe for paranoia. -...
“House Bill 434 would require school districts to establish formal policies for removing content from schools that is ‘obscene and harmful to minors,’ … (creating) a standardized removal process in which parents could challenge any book, magazine, film, video, web-based content, sound recording, or live performance offered to students.” - New Hampshire Bulletin
Susanna Clarke: “A narrative makes illness seem rational – and it gives the sufferer a measure of control – or at any rate the illusion of it. This is particularly true of the sort of chronic illness in the face of which poor doctors are often at a loss. - The Guardian (UK)
True, the person writing this was a history major, but still: "A rare surviving copy of the Declaration of Independence has been discovered at The National Archives in Kew, the only known example of its kind outside the US.” Discovered by a volunteer. - BBC
Supposed AI tells - “are also characteristic of human writing, which, after all, the large language models (LLMs) that produce them were trained on.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Fandom communities are still mostly relying on vibes. Most fanfics aren’t judged by a tool like the AO3 skin, but by tells' that could include anything from specific sentence structures — like the notorious ‘it’s not X, it’s Y' — to overuse of flowery metaphors.” - The Verge (Archive Today)
In a phone interview on Tuesday afternoon, Jamir Nazir told me that he feels vindicated—and relieved. “Look, I didn’t use it!” he said about AI. Now that he has won the prize, Nazir said, he is free at last to explain his process and clear his name. - The Atlantic
“Though it was much maligned during its initial years, The American Spelling Book had a profound pedagogical effect throughout the young nation. ... ‘There iz no alternativ,’ implored Webster in 1790, ... ‘Every possible reezon that could ever be offered for altering the spelling of wurds, stil exists in full force.’” - Literary Hub
In 2002, the Black feminist writer and scholar bell hooks published a book titled “Communion,” which argues that women have been conditioned to search for love outside of themselves, and should focus on cultivating self-love in all stages of their lives. - The New York Times
In every prize I’ve ever judged or heard firsthand reports of, everything else is up to the judges and their idiosyncrasies. There’s no input from anyone else. The heads of these organizations often learn the winner at the same moment the rest of the world does. - Rebecca Makkai
