Robert Sietsema: “[In the 1970s, m]ost of the verbiage devoted to food in local newspapers concerned easy-to-make recipes, human interest stories, food travel writing, kitchen advice to housewives, and the occasional piece that sought to get you interested in wine. Every Friday, there would be a restaurant review in The New York Times.” My, how things have changed …
Category: publishing
$100,000 Poetry Prize Goes To D.A. Powell
The 46-year-old poet, “who teaches at the University of San Francisco, has won the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award from Claremont Graduate University. His books include ‘Tea,’ ‘Lunch,’ ‘Cocktails’ and ‘Chronic.'”
How The Iliad Is Reflected In Wars Throughout History
Alexander the Great “esteemed it a perfect portable treasure of all military virtue and knowledge.” The death of Gorgythion prefigures the poppies of Flanders Field. West Point cadets study the epic. The scene of Achilles dragging Hector’s body from a chariot has been replayed in Mogadishu and Fallujah. There’s even “spin”: a 1st-century historian argued that Homer “suppressed the truth,” which was that the Greeks lost.
Dante’s Inferno, The Video Game
“It’s true. Inferno is now a video game, with a brawny, armor-clad Dante as its protagonist. … [The] game’s creators say there’s an audience for it. Their research showed that most people had heard of Inferno but few knew what it was about. This, they say, gave them license to make a few improvements.”
How The iPad Has Already Changed The Publishing Game
Laura Miller: “Ultimately, if the iPad takes off, the Kindle is in serious trouble. In order to maintain the complete, current selection of titles that is one of its device’s great features, Amazon has to be willing to come to terms with publishers.”
Scuffle With Macmillan Was A Public Loss For Amazon
“Amazon, which pulled Macmillan’s titles from its site, came out of the fight with egg on its face. The publisher, meanwhile, won new fans. … Amazon also lost the public relations battle with literary agents, a group that the giant retailer has been trying to woo in recent months.”
Va. School System Won’t Ban Anne Frank’s Diary After All
A parent’s very specific request that her eighth grader not be required to read aloud from “The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition” sparked a swift, blanket decision to ban the book from the school system. After intense criticism, it’s reversing course.
The Year The Booker Prize Lost Itself
“The date on which the award was given was also moved from April to November, creating a gap when a wealth of 1970 fiction could not be eligible. Among the big names in the running for the Lost Man Booker – which will be awarded in May – are Iris Murdoch, David Lodge, Muriel Spark, Joe Orton, Melvyn Bragg, HE Bates, JG Farrell, Ruth Rendell, Nina Bawden, Brian Aldiss and Susan Hill.”
Amazon Gives In To Macmillan On E-Book Pricing
“Amazon [had] shocked the publishing world late last week by removing direct access to the Kindle editions as well as printed books from Macmillan, one of the country’s six largest publishers, which had said it planned to begin setting higher consumer prices for e-books.” By Sunday evening, the online retailer relented, agreeing to restore Macmillan titles “even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books.”
Does Catcher In The Rye Speak To The Twitter Generation?
“Does the Holden Caulfield version of alienation speak to a generation connected on Facebook?” A group of five contributors – teachers, authors and an editor – consider the question on the New York Times’s Room for Debate blog.