“The 28 authors, including [Margaret] Atwood, [Andrew] Motion, Michael Morpurgo and Robert Macfarlane, warn that the decision to cut around 50 words connected with nature and the countryside from the 10,000-entry [Oxford Junior Dictionary] is ‘shocking and poorly considered’ in the light of the decline in outdoor play for today’s children.”
Category: words
What Does The List Of The New York Times’ Most-Read Stories Of 2014 Say About Us?
“Many of the most popular items from 2014 aren’t conventional news stories at all — they’re contributed content (Dylan Farrow’s open letter about Woody Allen), quizzes (2013′s “How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk was on the list for two years straight), and question-and-answer sessions (The Times’ Q and A on the Ebola crisis made the list).”
Our Idea Of “Fiction” Is Blurring. Reality Is Fungible
All of these novels point to a new future wherein the self is considered a living thing composed of fictions. Although critics will endlessly retread tired discussions concerning fiction vs. reality (and therefore the exhausted conversation about “realism”), that isn’t really what’s at stake here. What’s happening is that new novels… are redistributing the relation between the self and fiction. Fiction is no longer seen as “false” or “lies” or “make-believe.” Instead it is more like Kenneth Burke’s definition of literature as “equipment for living.” Fiction includes the narratives we tell ourselves, and the stories we’re told, on the path between birth and death.
T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize, And £20,000, To David Harsent
“After four previous appearances on the shortlist for the TS Eliot prize for poetry, David Harsent has finally taken the honour for his 11th collection of poems, Fire Songs. He was described by the chair of the judging panel, the poet and novelist Helen Dunmore, as ‘a poet for dark and dangerous days’.”
The Etymology Of “Cockamamie” Is Just That
Lexicographer Ben Zimmer talks to Lexicon Valley‘s co-hosts about the verkakte Yiddish origins of this meshuggene word. (podcast)
The Percentage Of Children Reading For Pleasure Has Plummeted In The Last Few Years
“Sixty per cent of the children who enjoyed reading more when they were younger put this down to the fact there are ‘so many other things that I now enjoy more than reading,’ and 47% blamed the fact that ‘I have to read so much for school that I just don’t feel like reading for fun,’ with others citing the fact they now have to read on their own, rather than being read to.”
Kickstarter Crowdfunded A Ton Of Publishing Ideas In 2014
Comics publishing, journalism, and regular publishing were separate categories last year – and the total raised for those projects was almost $34 million.
Waterstone’s Christmas Sales Rise 5 Percent In 2014, And Print Lovers Rejoice
Kindle sales slumped dramatically in the book chain, but books did well. “I would like to think it was down to the booksellers in the shops, creating an energetic environment. The good weather gods were on our side as well.”
In Praise Of Book Publishing’s Gatekeepers
Daniel Menaker: “In my judgment, there are between 20 and 30 editors and publishers in New York who – along with experienced and discriminating publicists, marketers, and sales reps – have over the decades regularly and successfully combined art and commerce and, in the process, have supported and promulgated art. They are in fact the main curators of our life of letters. They have somehow survived the grinding – tectonic – friction between creativity and business and made a go of both. They are cultural heroes, actually.”
Belarusian Publisher On Trial For Publishing Images Of Police Brutality
“Ihar Lohvinau is charged” – nominally – “with selling books from his bookshop in Minsk without the obligatory state registration, and faces a heavy fine and the closure of a store described by the International Publishers Association as ‘a vital hub for the country’s fragile literary community’.”