“Please just read me a story without distraction. I don’t need to hear a variety of voices from a single narrator if a full-cast production is not in the cards. Not every novel needs to be read as a radio drama. And please go light on the accents." - LitHub
Then Hugo Awards rumors started; now leaked emails confirm that “one of the Hugo administrators had advised other members to vet the finalists and 'highlight anything of a sensitive political nature' in China. ... Such works, he added, might not be safe to put on the ballot." - The New York Times
The news that we could finally read these still rolled-up papyri hit me like a lightning bolt. In the past, opening the scrolls, even those in excellent condition that unrolled easily, caused damage to them – especially the outsides that contain the beginning of each text. - The Conversation
"The change will affect prizes for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature to begin including authors 'who maintain their primary, long-term home in the United States, US territories, or Tribal lands' regardless of their citizenship status." - Mother Jones
This past September, Deseret News, the Salt Lake City daily owned and operated by the Mormon church, launched The Digest, a monthly compendium of the best of the paper's journalism from all its platforms, mailed to 120,000 homes. It was profitable by the following month. - Poynter
Scholar Shannon McHugh reminds us that, going all the way back to the medieval Italian origins of the form, sonnets have been written to express deep affection for best buddies, siblings and other family members, living and dead — and sometimes even to the saints. - The Conversation
Firestrom Books in Asheville got a call from a distributor asking them to take in eight tons of books rejected by Duval County Public Schools (Jacksonville). Now Firestorm is giving those volumes to anyone who asks — including quite a few Floridians. - The Washington Post (MSN)
New technology in the form of apps and tools offering real time translation have simplified the world so much that we don't really need to learn other languages any more. - Salon
More than 600 writers have signed a letter that "condemns PEN’s relative silence on the unfolding genocide in Gaza ... on the heels of two prominent novelists cutting ties with the organization over its decision to platform controversial actor and outspoken ceasefire opponent Mayim Bialik.” - LitHub
Was it No Child Left Behind? Common Core? COVID-19 school shutdowns? Or - as is the case for most people, from child to adult - the smart phone? - Slate
Romantic fiction, that is. With romances propping up the entire publishing industry, how hard could it be to write one? (Turns out writing a whole book simply isn’t that easy.) - Irish Times
Current debates about writing machines are not as fresh as they seem. As is quietly acknowledged in the footnotes of scientific papers, much of the intellectual infrastructure of today’s advances was laid decades ago. - Hedgehog Review
The Akwesasne Freedom School, on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, on the St. Lawrence River where New York, Ontario and Quebec meet, teaches K-8 classes entirely in Mohawk. The school, run by a nonprofit, has both American and Canadian students but accepts no money from either government. - The Christian Science Monitor
