Yes, there are some literary stars here whose books come to U.S. readers in translation — Karl Ove Knausgaard, Stieg Larsson, Elena Ferrante — but the number of books published in English that were originally written in another language has held steady at around 3% of the total for many years. Chad Post, founder of the publishing house Open Letter, which specializes in translated lit, writes about the interlocking issues behind “the 3 percent problem.” – Vulture
Category: words
What’s The Deal With America’s Fondness For Endless Adolescence? Blame Mark Twain
Tom Carson: “Most of the Americans entranced by the fib that everything after high school is a fall from grace undoubtedly have no idea where it originated, but the Clearasil staining Mark Twain’s hands can never be wholly scrubbed away.” – The Baffler
Does What I’m Doing Right Now Count As Writing?
Making lists of ideas, reading novels, scheduling time to sit down at your computer, researching new coffee shops at which to work, and establishing weekly word goals may seem like parts of writing, but they are not. They are procrastination, which, if you think about it, is actually writing in its purest form. – The New Yorker
The Rise Of Book Clubs In Afghanistan
“Books clubs are an indicator of a young generation that has come of age after 9/11. Many have liberal leanings and seek a space where they can talk openly. During the Taliban, Kabul University’s library was destroyed, but it has come back to life.” – The Guardian
Writing Now Pays So Badly That You Have To Marry Well Or Inherit Just To Afford To Do It: Report
“The full findings from the annual Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society report into author earnings … [reveal that,] while the average professional writer earns £10,000 a year, the mean earnings for a writer’s household were more than £81,000 a year, and median household earnings were at £50,000 per annum.” – The Guardian
Amazon Is Offering To Pay New York Times, BuzzFeed, New York Magazine To Expand Abroad
The online-shopping juggernaut is reportedly in talks with those three outlets (and possibly others) “about deals that would reward them for expanding their international presence, specifically in consumer-oriented shopping sites” such as NYT’s Wirecutter and New York Media’s Strategist. – Vox
Sure, Barnes And Noble Can Countersue Its Former CEO, Rules Judge — If They Pay His Lawyers In Advance
The ousted chief of the chain, Demos Parneros, sued over his dismissal (as one does if one is a CEO), so B&N decided to countersue, demanding to claw back some of the CEO’s compensation and to be awarded damages for his behavior. The judge let the countersuit proceed, but ruled that the indemnity clause in Parneros’s contract applies even in this case. – Publishers Weekly
The Book-Review-Is-Dying Essay Is A Familiar Trope. Anything New To Report?
Is relentlessly sunny book “coverage” replacing honest book criticism, or merely supplementing it? Are listicles, Bookstagram, and literary Twitter nothing but treacly promotion puddles on the surfaces of which books can float unscrutinized and unchallenged; or are they in fact vibrant and necessary new arenas of discourse wherein previously silenced critical voices can finally be heard? Has the age of the algorithm truly killed the intellectually rigorous book review? – Bookmarks
Google’s New AI App Generates Poetry
“The idea behind the app” — PoemPortraits — “which was jointly conceived by artist and stage designer Es Devlin and the creative technologist Ross Goodwin, is for users to ‘donate’ a single word to an ongoing, collective poem. The word you enter will be integrated in a randomly, or rather, algorithmically-produced couplet based on a scanning of more than 20 million words of 19th-century poetry.” – Literary Hub
Journalism’s Dependence On Freelancers Has Impoverished It (And The Profession)
“In truth, freelance journalism, as a career, is mostly an anachronism. Given the rock-bottom rates on offer, few writers actually support themselves with full-time freelancing… But for most of us, freelance journalism is a monetized hobby, separate from whatever real income one earns. The ideal relationship for a freelance journalist to their work becomes a kind of excited amateurism.” – The New Republic