“Hong Kong once churned out a broad range of books focused on China’s modern history and Communist Party politics, from thinly sourced potboilers churned out under pen names to respected works of analysis by top authors. … But the industry has declined thanks to tighter border checks, the consolidation of Hong Kong distributors and retail outlets under mainland control, and the disappearance and imprisonment of independent booksellers.” – The New York Times
Category: words
Ocean Vuong Travels Back To The Hometown That Looms Large In His Novel
NPR reporter Kat Chow grew up near Vuong, and the two attended the same high school (though they never met each other there). She joins the poet-novelist on a road trip to Glastonbury, CT. – The Atlantic
The Nine Best Literary Magazines In The English-Speaking World Right Now (According To Stack)
“We are being deliberately vague about the term ‘literary’ here: there are traditional fiction and lit-crit magazines listed, but we’ve also included a sci-fi publication and a psychogeography title. The only thing that really unites the magazines on this list is that every one is an exceptionally good read.” – Stack
Pro And Con Protesters Clash Over Drag Queen Story Hour At Small-Town Maine Bookstore
“About 50 people packed the inside of the Children’s Book Cellar, where is was shoulder to shoulder, like a rainbow mosh pit. Ophelia, a drag queen from Topsham, read from two books about inclusion.” “Across the street, another much smaller group, called An End to Child Indoctrination at the Cellar Bookstore, said their message was not about hating anyone.” – The Morning Sentinel (Waterville, Maine)
Classic Fiction Is Confessional – Tell Your Secrets. But In The Social Media Age…
…what if the opposite is true? That your secrets, the things only you know about yourself, are in fact the most trivial, most banal things about you? In a society where many of us who don’t qualify as public figures spend a lot of time projecting our lives and our personalities in public, the biggest secret of all might be that, in whatever privacy we have left, we don’t have any secrets. – Book Forum
The London Olympics Poet Has Just Won A Major Free Speech Prize
Lemn Sissay says that the Pen Pinter prize, named in honor of playwright Harold Pinter, is welcome. “What I like about this award is that it is from a great writer and a great organisation. I accept it as a sign that I should continue. All I have is what I leave behind. All I am is what I do.” – BBC
Tayari Jones On The Clear Before And After Dividing Line Of Reading Toni Morrison
The author of An American Marriage says she was 19 when she read Beloved, and it changed her life. “I hate to use such a chilly word to describe an experience that was spiritual, emotional and intellectual, but Beloved made me feel contextualised. That is the only way I can explain it.” – The Guardian (UK)
Turkish Novelist Elif Shafak Calls For Support For Writers As The Country’s Prosecutors Examine Her Novels
The Erdogan government has become a nastily anti-art authoritarian regime, Shafak says. “‘Turkey today is the world’s leading jailer of journalists,’ she told the Hay Festival. ‘It’s also very tough for academics. Thousands of people have lost their jobs just for signing a peace petition.'” – The Observer (UK)
Reviving The First Language Ever Spoken In (What’s Now) Los Angeles
“Every month [students learning Tongva] gather, practicing pronunciation, mastering the use of particles, singing songs and playing word games under the guidance of Pam Munro, a linguist from UCLA who has been teaching these classes for 15 years. She calls her work ‘a reclamation effort’ for a language that is no longer used in conversations. (includes audio clips, video, and study guides) – Los Angeles Times
The Whistling Language Of Turkey May Be Endangered, But It’s Not Dead
Kuş dili (“bird language”), used to communicate over long distances in a mountainous farming area near Turkey’s Black Sea coast, renders the entire Turkish language into variously pitched and articulated whistles. Cell phones may have made kuş dili redundant, but at least some of its speakers won’t give up on it. – The New York Times