“I was only ever a hair’s breadth away from being exactly as much of a failure as the people I write about,” he said by Zoom from Nashville. - The Wall Street Journal
That’s what Janet Malcolm did for Sylvia Plath in 1994, and thirty years later, that’s what Alexis Pauline Gumbs decided on for a new book about poet and essayist, publisher and teacher Audre Lorde. - The Atlantic
“It’s so interesting to think about the vast variety of things that can take place within one person’s life, and how nobody ever really knows it, because we only tell parts of our story to different people, and oh, I just want to know it so much!” - The Guardian (UK)
"It is well-known that classic works of Greek science and philosophy were translated into Arabic before they were translated into other European languages — including Latin. What is less well-known is that the point of translating foreign works was not to preserve them but to build on them." - Literary Hub
If faith in something as abstruse as literary theory seems absurd, consider a more familiar vehicle of human knowledge: the novel. As a form, “the novel” has the capacity to operate in two registers simultaneously, representing both the enormous breadth of the social world and the intricate minutiae of the individual life. - Public Books
Should we pander to the little rotters’ desires (BURRRP!) or should we give them impossibly pious characters Doing Good? The answer, of course, lies somewhere in between. - Literary Review
The rebranding follows months of controversy surrounding Scotiabank’s investment in the Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems and comes amid an ongoing campaign calling on arts organizations like the Giller Foundation to distance themselves from the financial institution. - Toronto Star
Notably, the appeals court’s ruling rejects the Internet Archive’s argument that its lending practices were shielded by the fair use doctrine, which permits for copyright infringement in certain circumstances, calling it “unpersuasive.” - Wired
The world needs fewer novels, certainly fewer novels that have been written in a month. And artificial intelligence is itchy for distractions; we need to give the robots something to do before they start messing with nuclear codes or Social Security numbers. - The Atlantic
"The Black List … has morphed over two decades into a multifunctional web platform focused on screenplay development and discovery. … Now, with relations between Hollywood and New York publishing closer — and the book-to-screen pipeline bigger — than ever before, the Black List is shifting its gaze over to the slush pile." - Publishers Weekly
I write today in praise of a third genre that few self-respecting intellectuals admit to reading regularly, though many do: the reference book. - Discourse Magazine
"U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman — the same judge who, in March 2023, ordered several books banned by Llano County officials returned to library shelves — denied most of the Texas county’s motion to dismiss librarian Suzette Baker’s wrongful termination suit." - Publishers Weekly
My daughter is a whip-smart kid, definitely smarter than I was at 12. But until I resorted to bribery, she’d never read an entire chapter book for pleasure. - The New York Times
"Wiley has already earned $23 million from AI deals and confirmed … that it is set to make a further $21m this financial year. A spokesperson confirmed that Wiley authors are set to receive remuneration for the licensing of their work based on their 'contractual terms'." - The Bookseller (UK)
Although open-access advocates and library groups support the move, opponents argue the new policy will limit researchers’ ability to maintain control of their published work—and cut into the $19 billion academic publishing industry’s profit margins. - InsideHigherEd
