Category: publishing

“The number of non-religious works issued in Arabic remains tragically low, the study adds, noting a lack of reliable data. Perhaps the International Prize for Arabic Fiction could help change this sad record. The contest’s first winner, Egyptian Baha Taher, was selected in Abu Dhabi today.”

“The book world, which uses up more than 1.5 million metric tons of paper each year, is steadily, if not entirely, finding ways to make production greener.”

“Only a fraction of the world’s books are translated into English. Of all books published in the United States, about 3 percent are translations. However obscure these endeavors may be to the general reader, as economic globalization becomes the norm, interest in translation is growing.”

“Lotteries and literature go ill together, but on balance, the Booker probably does more good than harm. Who knows which novel the latest panel will choose or what the voting public will make of its shortlist. If it’s any guide, when The Observer polled more than 100 writers on ‘the best book of the past 25 years’, the clear winner was Disgrace.”

“In the later 20th century, as waves of critical theory broke over the academy, the idea of the canon came under attack on the grounds that it was a club for dead white males, that it excluded much other work of value and interest, that it must be dismantled or at any rate radically revised. As Marx observed: ‘All that is solid melts into air’ – in this case into noise, the Babel of mass disempowerment.”

“A real-life literary cliffhanger has had an unexpected happy ending, with the rescue of imperilled publisher Dedalus by another imprint. The small independent, acclaimed for its translations of work unfamiliar to English-speaking audiences, had been left in financial dire straits by Arts Council England after its funding was withdrawn last month.”

“Books already highly praised, such as Junot Diaz’s long awaited second book, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and Edwidge Danticat’s memoir, Brother, I’m Dying, recieved awards. Other winners, Mary Jo Bang’s poetry collection, Elegy, recieved significant recognition for the first time tonight.”

“Public libraries are defenceless. They’re not sexy, and it doesn’t seem to matter if we erode them just a little. But if we keep on the way we are going, one day they will be gone. And no, that won’t mean the end of thought or civilisation, but they are life-enhancing institutions. We may only realise that when the last one closes its doors.”

“Clearly a huge range of books currently gets published but something fundamental is shifting for publishers and writers which is threatening the range available to readers and the livelihoods of most writers. Alongside a belief in the wilfulness of readers and writers, my hope for the richness of our future reading culture lies in a cocktail of new technology and strength of range-
holding booksellers.”

“Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography will be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in November. It will trace the story of a staunch liberal, the son of Jewish immigrants in New York, who risked imprisonment by defying the House Un-American Activities Committee, and condemning Senator Joseph McCarthy’s persecution of communist sympathisers in The Crucible.”