“The fact that someone with extreme views considered offensive by many people got such a significant book advance shows how the publishing world reflects, and plays to, many of the divides in our culture. Few left-leaning readers realize that within mainstream publishing, conservative books are a booming business.”
Category: words
Virginia Lawmakers Would Require Teachers To Warn Parents About “Sexually Explicit” Literature
“Virginia schools would have to send parents a list of any teaching materials containing “sexually explicit” content at the start of every school year under a policy being considered by the state Board of Education. All local school boards would be required to set up a way for parents to opt out of objectionable materials; teachers would have to provide replacement texts for those who ask for them.”
The First Author In History We Know By Name Was A Woman
The 23rd-century-BCE Sumerian priestess and poet Enheduanna wrote hymns whose influence, in terms of form and subject, stretched all the way to the Hebrews, the Greeks, and even early Christians.
Book Prizes Are Harming New Fiction, Warns Agent
“Cutting-edge British literary fiction risks being undermined by its growing reliance on a handful of powerful book prizes, a leading literary agent has warned. But the associated costs of entering the biggest awards mean independent publishers willing to take risks on ‘difficult’ works without obvious marketing potential are being shut out of contention.”
‘I Disowned My Native Language’: A Writer’s Confession
Yiyun Li, who writes only in English: “Yes, there is something unnatural, which I have refused to accept. Not the fact of writing in a second language – there are always Nabokov and Conrad as references, and many of my contemporaries as well … It’s the absoluteness of my abandonment of Chinese, undertaken with such determination that it is a kind of suicide.”
More Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments Found In Cave Of Skulls
Also discovered are a large variety of objects, from arrows to beads to lice combs.
Why Poetry? It’s Such A Tedious Question At This Point. And Yet…
“Why support poetry? Those of us who engage in the publication and sustenance of the written word do so to insure that language for our future generations remains intact, powerful and ultimately renewed, capable of its role during times of crisis and celebration.”
2016 Was The Year That Book Sales Turned A Corner
“The notion that owning a bookstore is akin to an act of altruism has become a little outdated. In fact, 2016 offered encouraging evidence that after years of dire news stories about the literary industry selling books has once again become sensible business. To be fair, the past year was less a book boom than a hold-steady.”
Critics, Writers, Bookstores Push Back Against Simon & Schuster For Signing White Nationalist To Big Contract
Many in the publishing world reacted with outrage over the S&S signing. “Soon, however, pushback against the publisher transitioned from simple outrage to calls for organized resistance. One literary journal announced a boycott on coverage in 2017.” Authors announced they’d leave S&S and others were contemplating boycotts.
What Are The Most Important Books Of The Last 20 Years (The Experts Don’t Agree)
“I reached out to some of my favorite contemporary writers and asked them to name the most important books published over the last two decades. To my surprise, there wasn’t a lot of overlap in their respective choices: only 14 titles were chosen by more than one author.”