Category: publishing

Is the English school curriculum being dumbed down? “More than 400,000 students took the AQA GCSE in English literature last year. The exam offers questions on one of eight novels, including Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, and The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger – both 20th century classics. But no 19th century novels make it on to the list, and teenagers can also get an AQA A-level without studying a single pre-20th century novelist. ‘This is a real sign of dumbing down. Many of the books which are put in front of children nowadays simply do not merit the amount of time which is spent on them’.”

“Chicago was very much a writer’s town in 1951, even if no one obvious giant walked the Loop, and remains a writer’s town to this day, though the one indisputable giant of the last five decades, Saul Bellow, died earlier this month. Dozens of writers in Chicago — or from Chicago — continue to produce critically acclaimed novels and stories, occasionally inspired but seldom intimidated by the Ghosts of Chicago Writers Past. What may be on its last legs, however, is the idea of the quintessential Chicago writer, neck-deep in despairing urban realism, following in the bottom-dog literary tradition of Dreiser, James T. Farrell, Richard Wright and Algren. You just don’t hear that voice much anymore.”

Every book Oprah chose for her book club saw a huge increase in sales. So “why did the books come under so much criticism? The question goes to the core of our perceptions about culture and art. Oprah, Rooney posits, found herself caught in an ongoing unease in America between highbrow and lowbrow culture generally summed up as: If a huge number of people appreciate something, can it really be art?”

Oprah has decided to launch a series of hardback books spun off from stories from her magazine. “The deal with Oxmoor reflects continued audience growth for Ms. Winfrey and her feel-good message directed mainly at women. Ratings for her daily talk show are the highest they’ve been in years. The May issue of the magazine, which will mark the its fifth anniversary, will be packed with 200-plus pages of ads–a record for the title.”

“In the long revolt against inherited forms that has by now become the narrative of 20th-century poetry in English, no poet was more flamboyant or more recognizable in his iconoclasm than E.E. Cummings. By erasing the sacred left margin, breaking down words into syllables and letters, employing eccentric punctuation, and indulging in all kinds of print-based shenanigans, Cummings brought into question some of our basic assumptions about poetry, grammar, sign, and language itself, and he also succeeded in giving many a typesetter a headache. That said, determining Cummings’ influence and his present stature in the poetry world calls for a more measured view.”

Finding a seat in the British Library is getting difficult. “It had always been the case that the British Library kept users down to manageable levels through a series of polite, but formidable, barriers. You were interviewed, and had to demonstrate a need to use the library. A reader’s ticket was, one understood, a scholar’s privilege, not a citizen’s right. Above all, the BL was at pains to keep at bay London University’s 100,000 students. But, in the last few months, undergraduates have suddenly been made very welcome. Word of mouth means more are streaming in every day. Why is the British Library now Liberty Hall? Bums on seats is mission statement 2005. And, if there are more bums than seats, it’s hard luck for the seat-less.”

“Poet C.K. Williams, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and many other honors, has been named this year’s recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, for which he will be awarded $100,000.”

A group of prominent writers has written to Oprah Winfrey imploring her to retart her book club of contemporary fiction. “There’s a widely-held belief that the landscape of literary fiction is now a gloomy place. Book Club members stopped buying new fiction, and this changed the face of American publishing,” said the letter, which was signed by 158 authors.

“What is billed as “the first biography” to tell Pope John Paul II’s full story hits bookshelves on Thursday, less than two weeks after his funeral and with the new pontiff just moving in to his old apartments. The book is one of what will undoubtedly grow to form a pile of profiles on offer in book stores – the latest instant response to the death of a public figure.”

“This week the poetry world is atwitter over the closing down of an Internet site that for the last year dedicated itself to exposing what it calls fraud among the small circle of poetry contests that frequently offer publishing contracts as prizes. Alan Cordle, a research librarian who lives in Portland, Ore., has managed the Web site, www.foetry.com, anonymously since its inception a little more a year ago. He called his site the “American poetry watchdog” and aimed to expose the national poetry contests that he said “are often large-scale fraud operations” in which judges select their friends and students as winners.”