Category: publishing

“NPR and WBUR talked about male writers about 70 percent of the time. Of the roughly 60 works of fiction discussed on NPR, only about 20 were written by women. Of the six novelists featured on more than one program, all but Amy Waldman, author of The Submission, were men. Of the three novelists interviewed on more than one program, all were men. Terry Gross interviewed twice as many male as female novelists, and Morning Edition apparently dedicated no coverage at all to women fiction writers.”

“The controversy silenced her creatively for decades, depriving us of the talents of one of opera’s most poetic librettist. WH Auden said the most important thing the librettist does is inspire the composer. Goodman did that and more: her two libretti stood on their own as works of art. ‘I would have liked to have written more than two operas,’ says Goodman. ‘But I’m glad those were the ones I wrote.'”

At least in Canada, erotic e-books bring in the money. “Customers are starting to discover them and finding that they can read certain books that they do not want other people to see and in privacy,” says the woman who runs eXtasy Books.

“Not every ‘genius’ is equally suffocated by the label. Readers know the extraordinary reputations of Shakespeare and Virginia Woolf, but some prefer ‘Richard III’ to ‘Richard II,’ or ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ to ‘Orlando.’ They feel at liberty to discriminate. Fewer readers imagine they can create their own Stein; many feel she is beyond their capacity to understand.”

When “A Wrinkle in Time” came out in 1962, girls mostly didn’t read science fiction – and it wasn’t written for them. But L’Engle’s first book defied the norms. “Though a major crossover success with boys as well (with more than 10 million copies sold to date), the book has especially won over young girls. And it usually reaches them at a particularly pivotal moment of pre-adolescence when they are actively seeking to define themselves, their ambitions and place in the world.”

“The great juggle for a festival organiser is not so much personal safety versus freedom of speech. It’s: What is your relationship with any government, because the act of writing is essentially dissident. That’s what distinguishes literature, and the public act of a literary festival, from buying a Guggenheim museum or a symphony orchestra: it’s not just something rich people do. It’s a place for extending the conversation, and you have to subscribe to the idea that people can contradict you.”

“As learning is the ultimate purpose, the question remains: Will kids really learn more and better on tablets than existing media? That’s far from clear now, and the reality may prove less revolutionary than the hardware.”

“The first interactive marine science textbook for the iPad is called Cachalot (French for “sperm whale”). It’s a free, app-based book that covers the latest science of marine megafauna like whales, dolphins and seals with expert-contributed text, images and open-access studies. Through a digital publication system called FLOW, the book also offers students note-taking tools, Twitter integration, Wolfram|Alpha search and even National Geographic “critter cam” videos.”

Festival co-director William Dalrymple writes of how he had to balance upholding the right to freedom of expression and exchange of ideas with the very real possibility of a riot in the middle of his event.

In a lengthy essay in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, the Russian leader writes that “the Russian people and Russian culture are the linchpin, the glue that binds together this unique civilization … this kind of civilizational identity is based on preserving the dominance of Russian culture.” He then argues that a list of 100 great Russian books be compiled and assigned to every student.