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The Literary Roots Of The Movie Die Hard

The screenwriter had to turn the author's "dense first-person prose, which featured its hero monologuing at length on CB radio and offering long sections of exposition about Klaxon Oil’s sideline in arms dealing, into a screenplay." And then there's the daughter. - LitHub

Britain’s Telegraph Newspapers Are To Be Sold Off

"The Daily and Sunday Telegraph are to be put up for sale in a deal that promises to reshape the media landscape after the Barclay family lost control of their crown jewel media assets in a bitter row over nearly £1bn of unpaid debts." - The Guardian

Study: One Third Of Those In A Survey Say Says Reading Books Is Best Way To Unwind

The survey by the trade body showed that a third (33%) of people think that books offer them the best form of escapism when they’re having a bad day, coming second only to watching television (54%). - The Guardian

New York State Rescinds Policy Restricting Prisoners From Publishing Creative Or Journalistic Work

"A May 11 directive established a stringent, months-long approval process … (and) gave prison superintendents the power to block publication of work that violated any of a number of broad rules." The policy was rescinded one day after this publication made it public. - New York Focus

Annie Ernaux: Winning The Nobel Ruined Me

“So I’m going to be brutal and say that I obtained a prize I never wanted. The Nobel prize fell upon me. It fell into my life like a bomb. It was an enormous disruption; since winning it, I cannot write and the act of the writing was always my future." - The Guardian

Insults Through History (They’ve Changed Less Than You Might Think)

"Despite the different time periods and languages used, the content of insults hasn't evolved: They're still highly personal barbs about people's courage (or lack thereof), status, competence, appearance, hygiene, sexual prowess and lineage." - The New York Times

Why The French Military Hires Science Fiction Writers

The job? "To imagine future threats to national security. So far, sci-fi novelists from the Red Team Defense project have written more than a dozen stories and published two books dealing with warfare based on mass disinformation, bioterrorism and a pirate nation. Even President Macron is reading them." - France 24

Once You Start Down The Book Banning Path, The Bible Might Get In Your Way

At least, that's what a school district in Utah found, after a parent complained about violence and vulgarity in the book. - NPR

It’s Good For An Author To Think Of Writing As Fun, Right?

That's what Brandon Taylor says writing is for him - "the most fun I'm capable of having." But the title of his third book in four years came to him when he was annoyed by his MFA peers at Iowa. - The Guardian (UK)

The Difference Between Novels And Short Stories? More Than Just Length

The short story has, from the beginning, been a thoroughly modern form: Originally published in newspapers and magazines and consumed on railroads and omnibuses, short stories have been ideal material for people who do not have the time or patience for a novel. - Hedgehog Review

Book Banning Comes To Newtown, CT… And Fails

Republicans on the Newtown Board of Education sought to have Flamer by Mike Curato and Blankets by Craig Thompson removed from the local high school library as if Connecticut was some benighted red state. - The Daily Beast

Salman Rushdie’s Next Book Will Be About His Getting Stabbed Onstage

"It will be a relatively short book, a couple of hundred pages. It's not the easiest book in the world to write but it's something I need to get past in order to do anything else. … So I just have to deal with it." - The Guardian

This Dave Eggers Project Lets Young Readers Edit Books-In-Progress Written For Their Age Group

"'We started cooking up this idea of showing students or classes written manuscripts and saying, 'What do you think?' To show them the process as it went along.' And so the Young Editors Project was born." - The New York Times Book Review

A New Dictionary Of African-American Language

It is not simply about the words that appear in letters, books, poems and lyrics. It is also about the words that morphed into other pronunciations and evolved to have a veiled meaning, for the safety of Black people. - The New York Times

Bookstores, Publishers, And Libraries Join Together To Sue Arkansas Over Law That Could Criminalize Librarians

"Seventeen plaintiffs — including the ALA's Freedom to Read Foundation, the Association of American Publishers, the American Booksellers Association, and the Authors Guild — will file a federal lawsuit over a recently passed law in Arkansas ... which exposes librarians to criminal liability for making allegedly 'obscene' books available to minors." - Publishers Weekly

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