At a moment of upheaval in the arts, the suggestion that writing’s value may simply be intrinsic—a creative act worth less than the website it’s posted on—is deeply unwelcome. It can even seem like poor taste. - The Walrus
The flagging was part of a routine procedure before Smithsonian events. The institution insists that the festival was called off because the organizers were too far behind schedule on logistical planning, but some participants and observers are skeptical. - The Washington Post
One reason books haven’t been particularly disruptable might be that many of the people looking to “fix” things couldn’t actually articulate what was broken—whether through their failure to see the real problems facing the industry (namely, Amazon’s stranglehold), or their insistence that books are not particularly enjoyable as a medium. - Wired
An app is coming to your rescue (surely it will be banned soon as well). Digital Public Library of America officials say they use "GPS-based 'geo-targeting' to show readers the books that have been banned in their area, with e-book versions available to borrow digitally." - Publishers Weekly
"You'll arrive at a realm ringed by a crystal wall and enter through the blazing portal of its golden-hinged gate — which will open and close for you automatically, like at a grocery store. … Then turn and follow the broad road into heaven, paved with stars and golden dust. From beneath, you once knew it as the Milky...
"For years, venture capitalists have promised to upend books and the structures around their creation and consumption. … For the most part, despite tech's sometimes drastic effects on other industries, book- and reading-related startups failed to alter much at all. People are still buying books — in fact, they're buying more than ever." - Wired
The argument runs something like this: because commercial pressures at large houses encourage cautious commissioning, nimbler indies – operating with tighter margins – step into the void and give choice-starved readers the books that corporate imprints deem unsaleable or otherwise risky. - The Guardian
"Today, Yiddish is most commonly used in ultra-Orthodox communities in places like Brooklyn or Jerusalem. But in Melbourne, snatches of it can be heard on certain streets, around multigenerational dinner tables, on stages and in classrooms." - The New York Times
The show’s opening last week raised further questions about its intended audience. On a hot weekday, the heavily trafficked library was closed to its constituents in preparation for a celebrity-studded evening event hosting the rapper and his VIP friends. - Hyperallergic
What about literature’s latest trend: the celebrity novel? Do the rules that apply to the celebrity memoir remain the same when it comes to celebrity-authored fiction that has been ghostwritten? Isn’t there a difference between a ghostwritten memoir and a ghostwritten novel? - The Guardian
"Since manga was first introduced to the U.S. in the 1980s, American companies have wrestled with how to adapt the genre for their readers. It requires taking into account not only art and visual concepts unique to Japanese, but also an entirely different system of reading." - The New York Times
The best thing to do is just start with any poem, because what matters about poetry is not what other people think of it or think of you reading these particular poems. What matters about poetry is which poems work for you. - The New York Times
"Some of publishing’s most celebrated and enduring editors are leaving Penguin Random House after accepting buyout packages. Meanwhile, an undetermined number of company-wide layoffs has begun, … amid a broader reorganization at (the publisher). - AP
According to a forthcoming report from The Authors Guild, the median income for a full-time writer last year was $23,000. And writers' incomes declined by 42% between 2009 and 2019. The advent of text-based generative AI applications like GPT-4 and Bard is giving writers across the country even more cause for worry. - NPR
Does it sound like a Christie plot? "That joke was not lost on the nerve-rattled people left with nothing to do but wander around her property sipping calming beverages, eating sausage rolls prepared by the staff and playing croquet on the front lawn." - Salon
