If words are arbitrary and purely a matter of convention, then how did they come to be established in the first place? In practical terms: how did our ancestors create the original words? - Psyche
The sleeper among audiobooks — ahead of Michelle Obama and Kazuo Ishiguro, behind only J.K. Rowling — is mystery writer Brenda Chapman's Cold Mourning. Among ebooks borrowed, at #4, ahead of this year's Booker winner and just behind Ishiguro, is Ellery Adams's The Secret, Book & Scone Society. - The Guardian
In translating, you pose yourself a question—or it is posed to you by the text; you have no satisfactory answer, though you put something down on paper, and then years later the answer may turn up. Certainly you never forget the question. - LitHub
"For decades, translators in the U.S. have been ... working in the back rooms of literature even as they play a central role in enriching Anglophone letters. ... None of the past five years' winners of the International Booker Prize credits the translator on the front cover." - Vulture
This year she's been focused on turning seven of Condé Nast's biggest publications into global brands, each under one leader. She is also ensuring that there are unlikely to be any more Anna Wintours — imperial editors-in-chief each with their own fiefs. - The New York Times
Followings can affect who gets a book deal and how big an advance that author is paid, especially when it comes to nonfiction. But despite their importance, they are increasingly seen as unpredictable gauges of how well a book is actually going to sell. - The New York Times
"Orwell's estate said it had been 'looking for some time' for an author to tell the story of and that Newman, who has previously been longlisted for the Women's prize and shortlisted for the Guardian first book award, 'proved to be the perfect fit'." - The Guardian
The aspiring writers imagine that being an author will bring them happiness, fame and fortune. Szymborska tells them to get a grip. Writing is a ridiculous profession, she argues, persuasively. Failure is inevitable. Success is highly conditional and mostly feels like failure as well. - Literary Review
While fairs give you the opportunity to bring your books to the attention of editors and scouts, they are also overwhelmed with choice, so “in-person access” to get to know their tastes for future reference, as well as learn about the markets, can be key. - ArtsHub
“There’s been a groundswell of support for indie bookshops. I’m very open and honest online about what it is like to run a bookshop and going through the pandemic, and I think they feel a little bit of ownership. They feel part of a community, and that community has helped us.”- The Guardian
Last month, a TikTok user picked up a copy of Cain's Jawbone and made a TikTok, wherein she said, "I’ve decided to take this nearly impossible task as an opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream and turn my entire bedroom into a murder board," - LitHub
"By bringing this modern cultural artifact here from white neighborhoods, had I set myself up, set up the neighborhood? Was I contributing to gentrification and sending the wrong message about how I wanted the neighborhood to be?" - The New York Times
Before her death at 61, she had become one of Spain's most ambitious, and certainly most progressive and feminist, novelists. Spain's prime minister wrote, "We lost one of the most important writers of our time." - The New York Times
The populist turn has put into question whether a comparatively very small group of authors—no matter how diverse—should really hog the scholarly limelight, especially when their productions constitute such an unrepresentative sample of all the imaginative or fictional texts. - BookForum
