Category: publishing

Poetry Awards Announced

The Poetry Foundation, newly enriched by a major gift from an Indiana philanthropist, is using part of the largesse to fund a series of awards intended to raise the profiles of underrecognized poets. Some of the awards are so specific as to seem designed specifically for their winners – for instance, the “Emily Dickinson First Book Award, for an American poet older than 50 who has not yet published a book of poetry” – while others emphasize qualities frequently lacking in poetry, such as humor.

Fagin The Jew: Anti-Semitism’s Grip On Classic Lit

The role of the Jew in Western literature has far too often been as a malevolent, money-grubbing villain who exists mainly to be bested by the blond-haired, blue-eyed hero. And if that Aryan-Nordic hero can be a child, so much the better, as Charles Dickens knew well when he conjured up the primary antagonist for Oliver Twist. “There is almost no other character to compete with Fagin for the title of the most grotesque and villainous Jew in all of English literature. Of all the 989 characters who sprang from the pen of Charles Dickens, the evil old gang-master is one of his most vivid caricatures.” Even though modern morality has mandated that film and stage versions of the Dickens tale tone down the anti-Semitism, the disturbing stereotype is still pervasive.

Rebirth of an Indie

Earlier this year, a much-beloved independent bookstore in Menlo Park, California closed, bowing to the same competitive pressures (from big chain booksellers and online retailers) that have taken out indie bookstores across the country. But in this case, the bookstore’s community didn’t sit idly by and mourn the passing – they passed the hat. “Local entrepreneurs developed a business plan to improve the store’s long-term standing and also invested cash… $500,000 was raised from 17 individuals, who each pledged at least $25,000 to become shareholders. About 370 local residents also signed up to volunteer time to help the store.” As a result, Kepler’s Books and Magazines will reopen for business this weekend.

Getting Past The P-Word

The recent run of writers and historians facing allegations of plagiarism surfaced has seen some of America’s best-loved authors and journalists exiled to the hall of shame that also includes steroid-popping baseball players and former Enron executives. But some writers seem to have an unusual ability to bounce back from such charges, even when their veracity seems indisputable. Take the case of presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who is embarking on a major book tour three years after she paid an undisclosed sum to settle an embarrassing lawsuit alleging plagiarism. Why is a major publisher still taking it’s chances with a known copier? “Because she has a charming personality, because she has powerful friends, and not least of all because she writes like a dream.”

We Can Think Of Some Poets We’d Like To Send Into Space…

The UK’s Poetry Society has conducted a poll to determine which poem Britons would most like to see shot into space – not as a way to get rid of it, you understand, more as a tribute to the spirit of poetry. The winner, announced in advance of Thursday’s National Poetry Day celebrations, is “Human Beings,” a poem by Adrian Mitchell. It’s worth noting that there currently are no plans to actually shoot the poem into space, and a copy of it will reside at the UK’s National Space Society for the foreseeable future.

Delay In Nobel Lit Announcement

Awarding of this year’s Nobel Prize for literature has been delayed a week. “By tradition, the 18-member group that makes up the 219-year-old institution, announces on a Tuesday that it will name the winner the following Thursday at 7 a.m. EDT. It’s also led to speculation that academy members may be locked in fierce debate as to who should take home this year’s prize, which includes a $1.3 million prize, a gold medal and a diploma, along with a guaranteed boost in sales.”

The Great Experimenters (And Why)

“Even while popular writing has quietly glided into the realm of the culturally elite, doling out its severe judgment of fiction that has not sold well, and we have entered a time when book sales and artistic merit can be neatly equated without much of a fuss, Jonathan Franzen has argued that complex writing, as practiced by writers such as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett and their descendants, is being forced upon readers by powerful cultural institutions (this is me scanning the horizon for even the slightest evidence of this) and that this less approachable literature, or at least its esteemed reputation, is doing serious damage to the commercial prospects of the literary industry.” So where is the evidence?

The Threat Of Used Books?

“According to the Book Industry Study Group, used book sales topped $2.2 billion in 2004, an 11 percent increase over 2003. Much of that growth can be credited to the Internet. While used sales at traditional stores rose a modest 4.6 percent, they jumped 33 percent online, to just over $600 million. More than 111 million used books were purchased last year, representing about one out of every 12 overall book purchases. By the end of the decade, the percentage is expected to rise to one out of 11, a troubling trend when sales for new works are essentially flat; authors and publishers receive no royalties from used buys.”