Across the US, parents, educators, and community groups are trying AI-powered tutors that listen as children read, correct mistakes in real time and adapt lessons to each student’s reading level — though questions remain about the risks of using AI and whether it can actually improve literacy skills. - CNN
“A panel of five judges … will assess 15,000 words of a novel in progress, and both winner and runner-up will receive not only money, but mentoring from Mantel’s literary agency, AM Heath; the publishing house John Murray; and the creative writing charity Arvon.” - The Guardian
The major imprints have been churning out a robust collection of books (more than 20 this year, by my count) that explain, extol, deride, fictionalize, and occasionally incorporate AI. - The Atlantic
“It can be a very difficult thing to spend years and years working on a project only to be faced with a barrage of awards announcements and nomination requirements and social media posts about longlists and shortlists.” - LitHub
No surprise: "Social media ... rewards the specific combination of disclosure and straightforward takeaways, which can be summarized in an Instagram graphic and shared across platforms.” - The New York Times
The poet, who also translates classical Chinese poetry, said he doesn’t think of his appointment as political. "Each poet laureate undertakes a special project during their tenure, and Sze wants to focus on translation as a social practice.” - Albuquerque Journal
In June, the initiative shared nearly a million books from a Harvard Library collection with AI researchers, spanning more than 254 languages and dating as far back as the 1400s. Currently, the initiative is tackling newspaper collections and government documents from the Boston Public Library’s collection. - The Harvard Crimson
“Some 140 books by women — including titles like "Safety in the Chemical Laboratory" — were among 680 books found to be of ‘concern’ due to ‘anti-Sharia and Taliban policies.’ The universities were further told they were no longer allowed to teach 18 subjects, including human rights.” - BBC (Yahoo!)
“Libraries, and public libraries in particular, are often in financial crunches and depend on tax dollars to keep the lights on. They rarely have the resources to defend against lawsuits on their own.” Here are stories of three attorneys and the cases they fought. - Publishers Weekly
“This is who the Fifth Circuit is harassing: a mom of four with a Diet Coke in her hand, doing this while her kids are at school. This fight is everyone’s—it belongs to every individual American.” - Publishers Weekly
Before Lebanon’s long civil war, authors from all over the Arab world published in liberal Beirut the books they couldn’t release in their own countries. Now, decades of conflict in Lebanon have led to both government censorship and self-censorship, while bookstores and readers cope with prolonged political and financial crises. - New Lines Magazine
“Libraries are enduring book bans, mental health crises, drug overdoses, and more” — including accusations of peddling pedophilie porn — “as we try to provide resources and assistance far beyond our means, both fiscally and emotionally.” Yet, writes Katie Walsh, moments like this one with a young teen reader make up for it all. - Slate (Yahoo!)
The digital froth of the 2010s—BuzzFeed, Upworthy, the ceaseless click-baiting and SEO-hunting—could be understood as a Bronze Age, and we are now after the fall, in a new era we can’t quite name yet. Literary prestige, for one, has never meant less. - Ross Elliot Barkan
Definitions, professional and amateur, are a click away, and most people don’t care or can’t tell whether what pops up in a search is expert research, crowdsourced jottings, scraped data, or zombie websites. - The Atlantic
In 2020, the magazine published a story by freelance journalist Ruth Shalit Barrett about wealthy parents pushing their children into niche sports to gain an edge in college admissions. After a media columnist spotted some factual issues, The Atlantic retracted the story entirely, and Barrett sued for defamation and reputational damage. - TheWrap (Yahoo!)
