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New Yorker Union Members And Condé Nast Agree On Contract

"After a protracted battle that nearly led to a workers strike, the staffers at three Condé Nast publications — The New Yorker, Ars Technica and Pitchfork — have come to an agreement on their first union contracts. … In the end, the unions got what they wanted. They secured salary floors of $55,000 a year upon the contracts' ratification...

Why Newspapers Should Revive The Vanishing Art Of Obituaries

“We all know people who we think are so cool, or interesting, or exciting, but a lot of times those stories vanish if no one is there to tell them.” - Poynter

New Press Aims At The Trump Market

All Seasons is staking out territory that some mainstream publishers are wary to venture into, by courting former Trump officials who staunchly supported the president through the bitter end of his administration. - The New York Times

Literary Novelists Rediscover Historical Fiction

As students of history know, fashions ebb and flow; it’s increasingly clear that the historical novel is being embraced and reinvented. - The New York Times

Justice Dept. Drops Trump Administration’s Case Against John Bolton And His Book

"The Justice Department has closed its year-old criminal investigation into former Trump national security adviser John Bolton and dropped a related lawsuit connected to the publication of his book about the ex-President's diplomatic bungling. The … criminal investigation had scrutinized whether Bolton's book illegally revealed national security information, while the lawsuit had sought to grab royalties from Bolton for...

Rethinking “Lord Of The Flies”

Responses to Golding’s work tend to be polarised, varying from the adulatory to the contemptuous. - 3 Quarks Daily

‘A Star Is Born’: The History Of The Asterisk

The little mark's use in texts goes back at least to Aristarchus, the second-century BC compiler and editor of Homer's epics; it continued through the Middle Ages, the birth of printing, the mass market for books, and the advent of text messaging. And it meant something different in each of those times; these days, it seems to serve at...

World’s Largest Publishing Trade Fair Will Be Back In Person This Fall

"Germany has begun to open to travelers and the Frankfurt Book Fair is planning on hosting a live, in-person fair this October 20-24. 'It will be smaller in scale and more focused,' Juergen Boos, the fair director, told PW. A number of virtual events are also being planned and the city of Frankfurt will again host author events for...

New Yorker Unionization Effort Divides Writers

The unionization effort has created an uncomfortable moment for the writers at The New Yorker, who have the kind of jobs and influence every journalist wants but few attain. - The New York Times

The Healing Power Of Queer Coming Of Age Stories

Books can be intensely powerful for some people, especially when the books do the work of repairing past pain. "'So many queer people 'have been through immense pain growing up in our adolescence,' Dr. Matos told me. Attempts by the broader culture to 'limit who we loved, what we desire, what we do with our bodies' abound. In these...

How To Be Everywhere Online

First, meme well (and second, make She Memes Well the title of your memoir). In her new book, comedian and meme power user Quinta Brunson "breaks down her journey from struggling stand-up comedian to being recognized by strangers all over the world. The book includes hilarious anecdotes about growing up in West Philadelphia, being a Black woman, dating and...

Brexit May Cause A Royal Mess With Copyright, Authors Warn

Living authors like Kate Mosse and Philip Pullman are worried because as Britain exits the EU, protections have changed. "Authors and publishers fear that changing the rules could mean that cheap international editions of a book would pour into the UK, eroding the money authors could make from a domestic sale." - The Guardian (UK)

A Guide To The Pulitzer Prize Books

Northern Hemisphere summer reading plans, here you go. - The New York Times

Yusef Komunyakaa On Poetry And The Pandemic

Komunyakaa: Writing poetry "feels like one has been chosen as a caretaker of observation. There's a certain reality, but also there's a certain kind of dreaming, and that place takes us someplace that we never dreamt of." - NPR

How Historical Fiction Became Literary Again

For decades, the literary world disdained historical fiction. "It has been seen as its own fusty fashion, relentlessly uncontemporary and easy to caricature, filled with mothballed characters who wear costumes rather than clothes, use words like 'Prithee!' while having modern-day thoughts, and occasionally encounter villains immediately recognizable by their yellow teeth or suspicious smell. What light could such novels...

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