“Penguin, publisher of The Salt Path, is delaying author Raynor Winn’s next book after reporting cast doubt over the truth of the 2018 memoir. The decision was taken to 'support the author.’” - The Guardian (UK)
“Perhaps the best way to understand Tingle’s career plot twist is as part of a trend in horror fiction that speaks to contemporary identity issues.” - Slate
One of the things Mary Jo Bang had to change: Rhyming. “I knew I could not maintain the rhyme scheme that he had invented for that poem. English is a rhyme poor language compared to the romance languages.” - NPR
“Early in her career, she published five novels that were critically acclaimed but only moderately successful, while managing to avoid the industry pressure to concentrate on a single genre or series.” Then came Mexican Gothic. - The New York Times
The cache of papers, dating from the 15th through the 19th centuries, was stolen from the National Archives of the Netherlands in 2015. Among the recovered papers are archives from the early days of the world’s first multinational corporation, the Dutch East India Company. - France 24
“How much panic over kids’ literacy is warranted? Scholars who study the subject, concerned English professors, and experts in the ‘kids these days’ phenomenon told me that the literacy landscape is a lot more nuanced than either of my gut impulses would have led me to believe.” - Vox
“On the surface, this is welcome news for Australian writers with its funding package of $26 million ($8.6 million per year) over the next three years. But what exactly does this new support look like in the wider context of Australian literary sector funding over time?” - ArtsHub (Australia)
It’s a particular issue for historians in and of Philadelphia, since so many 18th- and 19th-century documents are in that hard-to-read script used in the Declaration of Independence. So experts at the American Philosophical Society (founded by Benjamin Franklin) have developed software to transcribe those documents. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
“More softness in adult nonfiction in the second quarter and slowing sales in adult fiction combined to drop unit sales of print books just over 1% in the first six months of 2025 compared to the same period a year ago at outlets that report to Circana BookScan.” - Publishers Weekly
The Initial Teaching Alphabet was a radical, little-known educational experiment trialled in British schools (and in other English-speaking countries) during the 1960s and 70s. Billed as a way to help children learn to read faster by making spelling more phonetically intuitive, it radically rewrote the rules of literacy for tens of thousands of children. - The Guardian
Are you happy to watch Cormac McCarthy’s characters speak both English and Spanish, since they live on the border, or do you seek out translation? What about the Igbo in Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie’s books? Keep reading, maybe figure it out in context, or use Google Translate? - LitHub
They’re not fans. One: “'I’ve narrated really raunchy sex scenes – AI doesn’t know what an orgasm sounds like,’ she says. ‘Birth scenes as well – I’d love to know how they plan on getting around that.’” - The Guardian (UK)
It’s all a win for families (and sometimes adults as well): “Reading aloud engages kids in the story rather than their getting tangled up in the mechanics of reading. As a result, they can have deep discussions, build on current reading levels, and later have conversations with peers.” - Slate
There’s Prose to the People, "a kind of fun celebration of how bookstores in general operate as more than just, like, a place where you go and pay money for a book. They are something bigger, and they mean something more to a community.” - NPR
