Author: Douglas McLennan

BANNED, NOT ONCE BUT TWICE

South African novelist Christopher Hope holds the rare distinction of having had his work banned by both his government’s old and new regimes. Wasn’t apartheid’s pervasive censorship supposed to end with the transition to democracy? “It goes on – this urge to shut people up. Anyone visiting South Africa and looking at the papers or the TV will catch, before long, a whiff of paranoia in the air.” – The Guardian

WHEN “BIBLIOMANIA” IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT

  • When Seymour Durst died five years ago, his book collection about New York City had outgrown his five-story townhouse. Last month, his vast collection was donated by his family to the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, “to honor [his] wish to keep his 10,000 books, 20,000 postcards, 3,000 photographs and stacks of other New Yorkiana together under one roof.” – New York Times

THE ’60s IN POETRY

An upcoming academic conference on poetry in the 1960s gives one of the first glimpses at “how the academy – or at least the progressive/experimental poetry wing of the academy – will be canonizing the period.” Accordingly of the 200 papers to be presented, “there were 151 US poets in the 1960’s who are now worthy of study. Twenty-seven are the subjects of multiple papers.” – Exquisite Corpse

LONDON’S CONCERT HALL BLUES

An “important announcement” at London’s South Bank today proposes to offer an acoustic fix for the concert hall there. But the promises have dragged on for years, and critic Norman Lebrecht doesn’t expect much. “To the left, Tate Modern heaves. To the right, the Millennium Wheel attracts day-long queues. In the middle, the nation’s foremost concert hall moulders.” – The Telegraph (UK)