ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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State Legislation Threatens To Criminalize Librarians For Providing Information About Abortion

"(The American Library Association) says it is 'developing guidance' for libraries and library workers and working with other organizations to 'oppose any efforts to limit access to constitutionally protected information or limit privacy protections' for library users." - Publishers Weekly

Our Ever-Evolving Definitions Of What’s Obscene

Many words we consider, at best, crude were medieval common-or-garden words of description and were not considered obscene. To say ‘I’m going to piss’ was the equivalent of saying ‘I’m going to wee’ today and was politer than the new 16th-century vulgarity, ‘I’m going to take a leak’. - History Today

Why The Role Of Poet Critics Is Different From Other Critics

Most often the role of the poet-critic is neither to delineate nor disseminate, but rather to illuminate. In such manner the main subject of the poet-critic, versus that of the literary critic or reviewer, is poetry itself. - Salmagundi

Virginia Republicans Are Bringing Back Obscenity Trials

"Rather than demanding that school boards or librarians remove books, the current case takes the books to court, using an obscure Virginia law that would allow the judge, if she found the books obscene, to ban bookstores, libraries, and even private citizens from selling or sharing them, everywhere in Virginia." - Slate

Why Have The Culture Warriors Come So Angrily After Drag Queen Story Hour?

"It is not just about fabulous queens competing on RuPaul's Drag Race; even Mr Tumble performs in drag on CBeebies. So, how have we reached a place where a man in a dress is automatically deemed to be a threat to children?" - The Guardian

How To Fight Back Against Library And School Book Bans

Margaret Sullivan: "Local residents should show up at school board meetings to express dissent publicly, get in touch directly with school administrators to insist that established procedures be followed before summarily removing books from shelves, and let state and local legislators know of their opposition." - MSN (The Washington Post)

Why Do The Ranks Of Crossword Puzzle Constructors Remain So Un-Diverse? Simple: The Pay’s Just Too Low

"It turns out the crossword industry really does consist of earnest wordplay lovers donating their time to unpaid mentorships, generally as part of an industry-wide effort to bring new and underrepresented people into crosswords.  Unfortunately, the end result might be even more exclusive than a pay-to-play scheme." - The New Republic

Mass-Market Paperbacks Are In Trouble

Over the last five years, sales in the category are down 32% by units sold and 43% by revenue.  Some authors and titles, especially romances and mysteries, have moved to trade paperbacks; a bigger issue is the rise of very cheap self-published ebooks in a highly price-sensitive category. - Publishers Weekly

The Bookstore As Expedition

The Internet dealt a major blow by creating a massive single market for used books, undercutting the bread-and-butter lower end of the secondhand market. Amazon, in turn, depressed the prices of new books. And then there are rising rents, which have devastated small businesses of all kinds. - The New Yorker

Here’s What Happens When You Offer Free Grammar Advice

I know how deep people’s relationship to grammar runs, because I’ve been teaching adults of all socioeconomic and educational backgrounds for thirty years. Language is connected to people’s sense of self and their sense of power. There is a lot of grammar insecurity. - LitHub

How Colleen Hoover Came To Dominate The Bestseller Lists

No, it's not just Book TikTok. "While Hoover might just be the ideal author to preside over TikTok, the platform is only the latest online vehicle she had ridden to fame and fortune." And then there's writing skill. - Slate

Graywolf Press Has A New Publisher Who’s Looking For Talent In New Places

Carmen Giménez is a poet who co-founded Noemi Press in 2002. One of Noemi's co-publishers says that Giménez "really helped pull the curtain back and allow people to see how publishing works ... and demystify some of what, historically, has been gatekept." - The New York Times

The Planned Merger Of Penguin Random House With Simon And Schuster Is Scary For Authors

That includes Stephen King, who testified at an antitrust trial against the merger. Industry insiders agree. The president of the Authors Guild said, "Reduced competition will likely make the sector even less diverse, and that's bad not just for authors, but also for readers." - NPR

The Summertime Joys Of Reading Outside

"Enjoying a book alfresco is one of summer’s simple, iconic joys, right up there with running through a sprinkler, spotting the evening’s first firefly or scraping a flat wooden spoon across a freezer-burned cup of Italian ice." - The New York Times

Libraries Are Starting To Change How They Reference Indigenous Peoples

Outdated terminology such as “Indians of North America” has remained in these term lists despite changing use in society and no longer matches the language used in the books themselves. - The Conversation

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