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
"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
"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
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)
"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
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 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
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
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
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
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
"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
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
Said one of them, "This is about a legacy white employee who was in danger of losing her job for performance reasons, so she cynically appropriated the language of diversity and inclusion to try and hold onto that job — which if she lost it might have actually gone to a person of color." - Gawker
Today, critics can almost take for granted that we have emotional relationships with literary works—notably, ones of attachment. But if the literary work is “an object of the affections,” does it love critics back?4 Do critics rely on such a fiction? - Public Books
