Too many of the undergrads taking the course I currently teach cannot read. They’re literate, of course, but unable to sit long enough to read a chapter from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden or an essay about an Australian ecofeminist nearly mauled to death by a crocodile. - AlJazeera
"Founded in Dublin in 1997 as a receptacle for 'all this great writing floating around,' The Stinging Fly has reached its 25th year as a launching pad for some of the country's most promising, and in time, some of its best known, poets and novelists." - The New York Times
A poll published found 61 percent were more concerned that “some schools may ban books and censor topics that are educationally important” than by the prospect that instructional materials might offend students or parents. That skepticism isn’t partisan, either. - Washington Post
"In the new visibility, the literary translator possesses a different sort of identity: still the articulate spokesperson for another language and culture, but self-conscious as an interpreter, at once scholarly and creative. The translator as writerly intellectual." - Literary Hub
"(The) eight-article proposal includes imposing a fine of up to €100,000 ($108,000) on the use of foresterismi, or foreign words that have Italian translations, in official and public-facing communications. This includes names or acronyms used for professional roles — say, manager, or CEO." - Quartz
The New York Times bestseller lists (there are more than a dozen of them) are the product of a lot of math, but also a good deal of art. Contrary to what many people seem to think, there is no practical way to count all the copies of any book that have sold in a given week. - Slate
There were stretches when I made so little money writing or editing that I couldn’t blame my parents for assuming they were hobbies. They used to wonder how I could spend weeks revising work I had already done, months on an idea or project that might never sell. - Esquire
"Trove, the expansive archival database that holds billions of images, newspapers, documents, manuscripts and myriad other resources that are freely accessible to the public, was under threat, with its funding under the previous government scheduled to end on 30 June." - The Guardian
None of my audiobooks are. Audible, the Amazon division that controls about 90% of the audiobook market, won't carry them because, if you want to sell your audiobooks on Audible, you have to let them add Amazon's Digital Rights Management (DRM) to them, and I refuse. - Publishers Weekly
Almost all of the South Asian books known internationally were written in English, but there's an extremely vibrant literary scene in the subcontinent's own languages. The University of Chicago's SALT project (South Asian Literature in Translation) aims to make that literature accessible to the wider world. - The Guardian
"A federal judge in Austin, Tex., has found that a library board in Llano County likely infringed the constitutional rights of readers in the community by unilaterally removing books it deemed inappropriate." - Publishers Weekly
As revelations emerged in recent weeks that the estates of several revered literary figures are altering portions of well-known works, the questions of whether, and how, classics should be updated to conform to current sensibilities have divided readers and the literary world. - The New York Times
Both sides have a point, but both sides are also, let's say, a bit touchy. Why? "Coming out against libraries making books more accessible looks miserly, but so does protesting against authors getting paid what they deserve." Meanwhile, the publishers are the problem. - Wired
