Category: words

‘Latinx” may seem ungainly in English, but it’s very awkward in Spanish. But use of latine as an alternative to latino/a, a formulation which started in Argentina (where even some universities, politicians and judges have started using it), is spreading among young people in Latin America and Spain, as is the -e ending more generally. Yet the Real Academia Española, the official arbiter of the language of Cervantes, will have nothing to do with it. That may not matter so much: as one Ecuadorian copy editor tells a reporter, the RAE is, quite literally, “a colonialist institution.” – The World (PRX)

In Canada, the most trail-blazing contemporary nonfiction is being produced by writers of colour and Indigenous writers, many of whom are women or nonbinary. – The Walrus

“The judges offered the justification that ‘the public had been subjected to too many bad things this year to justify exposing it to bad sex as well,’ but come on — the bad things we’ve weathered in 2020 are exactly the reason we need to laugh and cringe at [execrable sex writing]. … The Literary Review judges admonished writers not to take the cancellation as ‘a license to write bad sex’ — but they abandoned us in our time of need so we don’t have to listen to them.” – Electric Literature

Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, Ethan Hawke, Jo Nesbø and James Hannaham are a few “of countless targets in a mysterious international phishing scam that has been tricking writers, editors, agents and anyone in their orbit into sharing unpublished book manuscripts. It isn’t clear who the thief or thieves are, or even how they might profit from the scheme. … In fact, the manuscripts do not appear to wind up on the black market at all, or anywhere on the dark web, and no ransoms have been demanded. When copies of the manuscripts get out, they just seem to vanish.” – The New York Times

Joseph Epstein: “Rich literary periods are often followed by stagnant ones. We in the United States, but not we alone, are now going through such a stagnant period. What is the last novel you can think of that caused a genuine stir?” – National Review

Apparently, all of the writers, activists, and columnists think the president-elect should read Extremely Serious Books (especially if they’re by men). Can’t someone toss Joe a novel or two? – The New York Times

Not so easy this year. “‘It’s the least festive I’ve ever felt in my life,’ Ashley says, of writing A Surprise Christmas Wedding amid the gloom of 2020. ‘Every word was a struggle.'” – The Guardian (UK)

In its revamped form, Spiegel & Grau will produce 15 to 20 books a year, as well as original audiobooks and podcasts. It will also work on television and film adaptations and already has signed a first-look deal with Amazon Studios to develop projects from its titles. – The New York Times

“This week, The New Yorker attached its own extraordinary editor’s note to a National Magazine Award–winning 2018 article by staff writer and novelist Elif Batuman about Japan’s so-called rent-a-family industry, in which desperate and lonely people hire actors to play their absent fathers, wives, children, and so on. The New Yorker reported that three central figures in the story had ‘made false biographical claims to Batuman and to a fact checker,’ undermining the veracity of large swathes of the article and revealing this particular rent-a-family business to be something of a scam.” Ryu Spaeth looks into how and why this could have happened. – The New Republic

“Adventure on a Bad Night,” brought to print by the magazine The Strand, “shows a microcosm of the racism and sexism in US society through a dissatisfied woman’s trip to a corner shop … [where] a pregnant immigrant … is being verbally abused by a shop clerk after asking for help.” – The Guardian