Author: Matthew Westphal

Inside The Meltdown Of The National Book Critics Circle Board

More than half of the NBCC’s board of directors have resigned since last Thursday, when now-ex-member Hope Wanuke posted on Twitter part of an email discussion among the board about an anti-racism statement Wanuke had drafted. Some of those who quit did so because of objectionable comments by board member Carlin Romano in the exchange Wanuke leaked; others quit because Wanuke had made public what were supposed to be frank, and therefore confidential, deliberations. Reporter John Maher recounts how it all went down(hill). – Publishers Weekly

As Much As They’d Like The Business, Booksellers Are Not Rushing To Reopen Their Stores

“Many governors across the United States have been eager to begin the multiphase reopening of businesses, but bookstore owners are acting cautiously. In remarks gathered from more than 25 independent bookstores, PW found that owners are reopening to in-store traffic more slowly than state guidelines allow, guided by their own sense of what it will take to ensure the safety of their employees.” – Publishers Weekly

In Postponing The Oscars, The Academy Blew A Golden Opportunity — To Not Change Any Dates At All

Bilge Ebiri thinks there have been enough Oscar-worthy films released already this year to fill out a nomination roster. “Most are the kinds of movies that would have had a hard time standing out in the high-stakes cacophony of a traditional Oscars race — not because they don’t rate, but because they don’t come from capital-A auteurs and/or aren’t backed by big studio spending sprees. The Academy’s decision seems, in some ways, like a slap in the face to those films, as if the Oscars were saying to them that even though they’re technically eligible, they should sit back and wait for the big boys to come out and grab their trophies.” – Vulture

National Gallery In DC Will Begin Partial Reopening This Weekend

“The National Gallery of Art will open its six-acre Sculpture Garden to visitors on Saturday, marking the first step of a multiphase comeback from the museum’s coronavirus closure. The second phase, with a date still undetermined, will include the opening of the ground floor of the West Building. The East Building will remain closed for several months to prepare for a major renovation.” – The Washington Post

Leadership Succession Crisis At Paris Opera

“Outgoing director Stéphane Lissner dropped a bombshell Thursday, saying Europe’s biggest opera and ballet company was ‘on its knees’ and he would be leaving seven months early in January. But his successor Alexander Neef said Friday he knew nothing of Lissner’s early exit, and cast doubt on whether he would be able to immediately step into his shoes just as the opera faces one of the biggest crises in its 350-year history.” – France24 (AFP)

French Government Seeks Designs For Memorial To Victims Of Slavery

“Last week, the country’s ministry of culture launched an open call for the design and production of the public work, which will be installed in Paris’s Tuileries Gardens, next to the Musée du Louvre.” The Representative Council of France’s Black Associations, one of the leaders of the campaign for the monument, says that “the artist chosen must be of African descent.” – Artnet

This Nonprofit Website Could Be The Future Model For Thriving Online Journalism

The Conversation, founded in Melbourne in 2011 with university and state government funding, now has ten editions in various countries and 150 employees as well as dozens of freelance contributors; its traffic has more than doubled in the last year alone to 38.1 million monthly site visits. Its specialty is interpreting scholarly research for a general audience, and its articles can be reprinted elsewhere for free. And its outside funding protects it from worry about plummeting ad revenue. Anya Schiffrin looks into how the site’s owners and editors pull it off. – Columbia Journalism Review