Casey McQuiston explains why romance is literature - if you know how to read it. “Romance holds a mirror to our wants and needs. If we want to study works that sit within a greater literary tradition, romance has one of the richest.” - Time
Then try this 700-page Australian prizewinning novel that “is 'more like an experience’ than a story,” according to its publisher. Then there are the five million feral donkeys. - The Guardian (UK)
The entire Author Events staff resigned in June, after “layoffs loomed internal meetings became contentious.” The resigning staff said they found the work culture “heartbreaking.” - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
"The hothouse atmosphere of newsrooms, especially at urban dailies, teaches the aspiring writer more about the world, about life, and about writing than any MFA program ever devised" — without the student debt. Think of Dickens, Twain, Whitman, Angelou, Wolfe, García Márquez … All newspaper alums. - Bob Keefer
"Clicking on (the 'OnlyFans' tab) pulls up a catalog of listicles ranking pornographic performers by demographic, from 'Turkish' to 'incest' to 'granny.' These blog posts … are presented as editorial work, without labels indicating they are advertisements or sponsored." (The Voice has one remaining editorial staffer, who insists he is not involved.) - Wired
Nüshu developed among women in the south of Hunan who were barred from education. By the end of the 20th century the script had almost died out, but now younger women who see it as a form of resistance to patriarchal power are learning nüshu, even in Beijing and beyond. - AP
“The anxieties of the art maker – the writer – come through in anxieties about painting, or photography, or sculpture, or dance. But the best art novels transcend this self-consciousness.” - The Guardian (UK)
Firefighters arrived at East Bay Booksellers just before 5:30 am on July 30 and were able to keep the flames from spreading, but the building and its contents are reportedly a total loss. No one was seriously injured or killed, though five residential tenants next door have been displaced. - Publishers Weekly
Over the past few weeks, new laws or regulations have gone into effect in Utah, Idaho, South Carolina and Tennessee that will make it more difficult for young people to access books and library materials that could be considered obscene or harmful. - The New York Times
Scott London, a chief deputy constable in the rural DFW exurb of Granbury, secured subpoenas, filed public records requests, received names of students who’d checked out certain books and wrote draft criminal complaints against three school librarians for books London considered obscene — such as Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. - NBC News
In a development that might raise the hackles of those who criticized the now decade-old rule change that broadened eligibility for the prize, six are Americans. Tommy Orange, nominated for his novel “Wandering Stars,” is the first Native American writer to be named to the longlist. - Washington Post
Because the process is as simple as it is stultifying, memorizing a poem always begins as a crime. The tedium of repetition reduces the hewn gemstone to a pile of gravel in which only the occasional dull agate stands out. But as you run your hands through the rock, the lines come together again. - Washington Post
“Get invested enough in Connections, and its easy to feel like Liu holds a weird sway over your life, as a chosen one who’s been endowed with the power to make or destroy thousands of people’s days in one fell swoop.” - Slate
