Sure, this is a work that would later become The Making of Americans, but in 1912, it was an experimental poetry manuscript rejected out of hand, and with snark, by London publisher Alfred C. Fifield. - Open Culture
Make it a community affair - or read in a new spot in your town or city. Adjust your genre plans. Or, you know, just dump the goals and have a good time. - NPR
The author of the book died by suicide in 1963. "All she left was a note by her bed for her son, Abbas, that read: 'I do love you, it’s just that life is unbearable. Forgive me.' After her death, her writing fell into oblivion.” - The New York Times
Most of the new Japanese words relate to food, but there’s also art, including “kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by joining pieces back together and filling cracks with lacquer dusted with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, highlighting the flaws in the mended object." - The Guardian (UK)
Of course, the author of Alice in Wonderland embraced the joys of sleeplessness. “For Carroll, waking and dreaming were not quite the opposites they seem to be. And since he believed dreaming to be a source of creativity, it follows that to him, sleeplessness might also be useful." - Slate
As the popular author’s books get turned into a TV series and a movie, she says, "It does feel like an answer to a prayer. … I just feel like I can almost see God smiling.” - The New York Times
Small Press Distribution, founded in 1969, was the country's only not-for-profit literary distributor. It served roughly 400 small. independent presses and was known for getting unknown or experimental books to stores and to readers. Titles it distributed won over 100 literary awards in the last five years alone. - KQED (San Francisco)
"Bedford Media, the holding company founded by model and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss and her husband, investor Josh Kushner, has acquired the publishing rights to Life from Dotdash Meredith. Bedford says that Life will be relaunched as a print magazine, with a 'vibrant' digital and video presence." - The Hollywood Reporter
The finalists are Doppelganger by Naomi Klein, Code Dependent by Madhumita Murgia, Thunderclap by Laura Cummings, All That She Carried by Tiya Miles, A Flat Place by Noreen Masud, and How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair. - The Guardian
"The real question I had “was could I write poems anymore? … I didn’t want to miss out on a certain pensiveness, and a certain relationship with language, that only poetry can demand." - Literary Hub
Total enrollment in language courses other than English at American colleges decreased 29.3 percent from 2009 to 2021, according to the latest data from the Modern Language Association, better known as the MLA. In Australia, only 8.6 percent of high-school seniors were studying a foreign language in 2021—a historic low. - The Atlantic (MSN)
To praise Shakespeare is also to praise his audience. Not just the one that filled the Globe during his lifetime, but the subsequent generations, too, that have cherished and preserved him, that have commented on him and imitated him. - New Criterion
Nowadays when we speak of Gutenberg’s invention of movable type, we mostly refer to its more reputable side. But similar to the proliferation of rumors and falsehoods on social media platforms, the printing press also facilitated the circulation of rumors and fake news in sensationalist pamphlets and broadsides. - Public Books
"It’s one of those books that manage to dip into the collective unconscious of their own age and society. … Underneath the 'horror' … is always the real horror: the all-too-actual poverty and neglect and hunger and abuse that exist in America today." - The New York Times Book Review
