ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

WORDS

The Academic Press With Crossover Appeal

Duke has become known as a press that blends scholarly rigor with conceptual risk-taking, where high and low art boldly intermingle on principle. - The New Yorker

There’s Still One Small Newspaper That’s Printed With Old-Time Linotype

Every week, up in the Colorado Rockies, editor and publisher Dean Coombs prints roughly 400 copies of The Saguache Crescent on a Mergenthaler Model 14 linotype machine that his grandparents bought in 1920. - Smithsonian Magazine

After Decades As A Half-Hidden Niche, LGBTQ Romance Novels Are Big Business

Time was, these books were published only by indie presses and, at least in mainstream bookstores, shelved separately or not sold at all. Now sales are up over 100% in the past year and 740% over five years, and you can buy queer romances at Walmart. - The New York Times

Twelve Masterful Literary Descriptions Of Food

Even in the hands of the greats, food scenes can seem less than central to a story, more filler or filigree than substance. - The Atlantic

What We Learned At America’s Biggest Writers’ Convention

This year’s conference was generally low on jargon, but there were still notable moments of turbidity in the conference guide. - Los Angeles Times

Nostalgia For Big-Box Bookstores? Really? Yes, Really.

"Chain box stores were big businesses, sure, but they were also a crucial third space for casual hangouts and serendipitous run-ins that metro suburbs, smaller cities and rural places often lack." - Bloomberg CityLab

Did Target Yank A Bunch Of LGBTQ Books From Its Website?

"On March 25, word started to spread on Twitter that a multitude of LGBTQ books — many of them by debut authors — were inexplicably missing from Target's website, despite a number of the titles having previously been listed for pre-order." - Publishers Weekly

The Charles Dickens Museum Got Shadowbanned On TikTok

It took a full-blown Twitter campaign to get the author's name, and the museum's name, and all of the museum's content, unbanned. You probably know what the problem was. - LitHub

Darcy’s White Shirt Is Going On Exhibit In Jane Austen’s House

Yes, Austen lovers, that shirt. "Jane Austen Undressed focuses largely on the undergarments that Austen heroines would have worn under their Regency dresses, but one of the main draws is bound to be the Firth shirt." Um, indeed. - The Guardian (UK)

The New Novel For A Time Of New War, A Century Ago

Ali Smith: Take note of what happened when Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf's friendship addressed war - it changed everything for Woolf, her novel Jacob's Room, and her future. - The Guardian (UK)

Amsterdam Publisher Halts Publication Of Book About Anne Frank’s Betrayer

A report by Dutch historians refuted The Betrayal of Anne Frank. "The book had claimed to identify the informant who alerted Nazi police to the Frank family’s hiding place, but the report’s authors said the conclusions were based on 'faulty assumptions' and 'careless use of sources.'" - The New York Times

Literature In Odesa Amid The Air Raid Sirens

"When I ask [legendary Odesa journalist Yevgeny Golubovsky how I can help, he replies, 'Ah, I need nothing, and when I ask again what I can do, he sends a quick message back: 'Putins come and go. We are putting together a literary magazine. Send us poems.'" - The Paris Review

Can Fairy Tales Explain The (Lack Of) Progress In Russia’s War On Ukraine?

"Several weeks in, it's clear many overestimated the Russian army's will and capability to fight and the Ukrainian army's will to resist an opponent superior in number, equipment and positioning." Two professors attribute this to the Russian and Ukrainian mindsets, as manifested in the countries' fairy tales. - The Conversation

Some Folks Want To Do Away With The Woman-In-Danger Subgenre Of Thriller Fiction.  Bad Idea.

Nancy Allen: "I write legal thrillers. Most of the books I've written center around a woman whose life or safety is in jeopardy, generally inspired by actual crimes committed in the Ozarks, where I live. And the reason I write these stories is simple. Women are in peril here." - CrimeReads

Quote Mill: Do These References Actually Mean Anything?

Think of all the speeches peppered with statements attributed to revered predecessors. Listeners are supposed to infer that the speaker has drawn upon a vast reservoir of material gathered from a lifetime of reading. But no: it was probably a quote pulled from such a compilation after two or three minutes of looking. - Los Angeles Review of Books

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss

function my_excerpt_length($length){ return 200; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'my_excerpt_length');