Literary fiction might be dead. More precisely, what might have died is literary fiction as a meaningful category in publishing and bookselling. - The Nation
"Book bans are at record levels, and libraries across the country are facing catastrophic budget cuts. … In a separate line of attack, library collections are being squeezed by draconian licensing deals, and even sued to stop lending digitized books." - The Guardian
We are at a moment of disjunction in the history of reading, driven by a technological shift that already seems to be as consequential as the birth of the printing press, a shift whose magnitude was already present to me 15 years ago when I had my dizzying encounter with my own text. - Tablet
"The paperbacks were intended to help soldiers pass the time. But they were also meant to remind them what they were fighting for, and draw a sharp contrast between American ideals and Nazi book burnings." - The New York Times
One judge on the 784-page Mr. B: George Balanchine’s Twentieth Century, by Jennifer Homans: "I’m hopeless on the dancefloor, ... but this book takes you in. It’s a story of the 20th century." - The Guardian (UK)
Poet Vona Groarke: "I think my voice is being appropriated, my life, in a strange way, I fear, is also being appropriated, my sensitivity, my sensibility." - Irish Times
"The books feature sheep that lived in a village and had to defend themselves against wolves. In the series of books, the sheep take action such as going on strike or escaping by boat." - Seattle Times (AP)
What happens when a writer who is used to rapturous reception, with a knack for shaping stories, collides with an active public drama he doesn’t control? - The New York Times
Okay, strictly speaking, it wasn't the United States yet, but the Puritan government in the Massachusetts Bay Colony suppressed Thomas Morton's book The New English Canaan back in 1637. - Smithsonian Magazine
