Category: words

“The list of prominent authors mired in harassment scandals has grown in recent months, and now includes best-selling children’s book authors, prominent political journalists and a National Book Award-winning novelist. As allegations of sexual harassment sweep through the publishing industry – resulting in canceled book deals, boycotts by bookstores and expulsions from writers’ conferences – publishers, agents and editors are grappling with how to tackle the issue … as they cut ties with accused men in hopes of minimizing any collateral damage.”

“Written in the Jane Eyre author’s own hand, the 77-line poem and a 74-line story were found in the leaves of a book belonging to her mother and sold to [The Brontë Society] in 2015.”

“After all, you can wear professional-looking clothes and behave in a way appropriate to your job, but as soon as you open your mouth, your accent betrays your upbringing. As the linguist Chi Luu explained …, research shows that we are quickly judged based on how we speak.” (Especially in Britain.)

The biggest disparity was seen at Hachette UK, where the median gender pay gap was 24.71%, and the mean gender pay gap was 29.69%. Hachette attributed the imbalance to issues including the higher number of men in senior roles; the higher proportion of women in lower pay brackets; and the higher number of women working flexibly and part time.

The book, published in 2016 by an Indian publishing house, contained biographies of 11 “amazing leaders.” “According to Pegasus’s description of the book, which also featured Napoleon Bonaparte, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi and Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, ‘some are famous, others little known, but all of them energise their followers and try to make the world better.’ Hitler was also included on the book’s cover.”

Hahahahhahahaahah (despairing laughter): no. “I cling to these happy memories whenever somebody breaks the copy machine for the fourth time that day by jamming a ballpoint pen inside the feed tray. Or spills their kale smoothie down the side of the circulation desk. Or when a person decides to eat an extra large pizza while vaping in the women’s bathroom. I think: remember why you chose this job? The elegance? And I laugh.”

Maybe, but not this way: “Increasingly, English departments are assigning intro Creative Writing courses to grad students, who receive minimal training and may be required to use a standard syllabus. The standard syllabi are designed to be simple, so that anybody can be plugged in to the class at the last minute and run it smoothly. They’re designed by a well-intentioned person in the department who needs to endure several rounds of approvals from higher-ranking faculty, at least some of whom don’t believe Creative Writing is a serious academic pursuit. A system like this is bound to produce stale, myopic syllabi that offer as limited a view of what it means to be a writer as possible.”

Wow: “In her mother, Louisa saw a powerful figure, capable of acting independently of a man, indeed standing in a man’s position by way of supporting the household, and, at critical points when Louisa’s voice might have been silenced by cultural mores and values, … Abba gave Louisa the unwavering encouragement to follow her inclinations and talent.”

Euro Disney comics, that is, which are multitudinous and a little weird for those used to U.S. Disney style and storyline. For instance, “the 200-page volume features a story about Mickey battling against a poison rainstorm.”