A controversy over Spain's entry to this year's Eurovision Song Contest — the Spanish jurors rejected the audience's and international jurors' choice, which was in Galician, in favor of a song in Castilian Spanish — is a reminder that there are plenty of legitimate languages without national flags and borders. - The Economist
Niamh Campbell: "In all the best erotic writing I've read – not a lot really, but the most accurate and enviably sexy examples have stayed with me – a certain pleasant darkness is revealed. Not the darkness of ordinary misogyny, but of idiot pleasure or exquisite tenderness." - The Guardian
"Navigating the fast-changing digital media landscape has left Slate struggling to define its identity. … Slate once stood out as a home for contrarian takes and intellectual debate, but that distinction has faded in recent years. Questions about its mission have increased after several high-level departures." - The New York Times
If you're tired of the same old lists, the editors of The Rumpus will definitely surprise you with an eclectic list ranging from memoir to mystery to essay to short story that can go far beyond February's short confines. - The Rumpus
Possibly! "This clear-out of the Little Queer Library comes at a time when Waltham Public Schools have placed two LGBTQ books under review, Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson." The LGL owners have vowed to restock. - LitHub
Sheila Heti: "It’s been really interesting reading the reviews for Fuccboi and comparing them to my reviews for Motherhood. Critics give him the benefit of the doubt, assume he knows what he’s doing, that he’s made conscious choices. No one’s saying, ' is the author.'" - The Guardian (UK)
As conservative U.S. adults go on absolute orgies of book objections and attempts to censor and ban books by or about LGBTQIA+ people, Black history and contemporary life, and anything else their joyless brains decide aren't "good" for kids, some teens fight back. - The Guardian (UK)
"Until recently Black authors had a hard time getting book deals from mainstream Brazilian publishers," when a few authors decided to change things: "They published inexpensive titles, priced at less than $4, and held book events in outdoor public places." - The New York Times
Or any letter at all - what's the reasoning behind letter shapes? Turns out it might not be as random as linguists thought, and taught, for decades. - Vice
But, in the UK at least, there was a corresponding gain in e-usage. But "borrowing of physical books had returned to around 84% of pre-Covid levels by December 2021, although digital and audio borrowing have remained high, which 'brings its own challenges to library budgets.'" - The Guardian (UK)
For Jennifer Croft, the campaign to bring greater recognition to translators isn’t just a plea for attention and credit, though it’s partly that. Croft also believes that highlighting translators’ names will bring more transparency to the process and help readers evaluate their work. - The New York Times
"Across the country, universities are slowly, quietly, cutting funding and shutting their literary publications down. Even magazines not connected to universities are closing their doors or changing publication strategies — a trend made worse by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic." - CNN
"The books are kind of incidental. What we're really arguing about is, what does it mean to be a citizen of the United States? How do we want our children to be educated? What do we want to say about our history?" - The Christian Science Monitor
Physical library visits fell from 214.6m to 59.7m in the year to March 2021, a drop of 72%, as Covid-19 restrictions shut branches for much of the 12-month period. The closures also led to a major decline in the number of books borrowed. Unsurprisingly, the number of web visits grew – up by 18% to 154.7m. - The Guardian
