Stories

Behind The Scenes: How They Choose The Winner Of The Nobel Prize For Literature

The Swedish Academy does not discuss the criteria it uses for selecting Nobel laureates, but here are the basics of how the process works. - Deutsche Welle

What McKenzie Bezos’ Serialized Book Says About How Amazon Has Changed Publishing

The former wife of a man who built a notorious empire by making other people’s books ever easier to buy and, eventually, ever easier to produce has herself produced a novel that seems to have stepped directly into the literary territory that Amazon helped make so fertile. - The New Yorker

Marin Alsop Takes Another Conducting Job

She is now artistic director of the Webern Kammerphilharmonie, the training orchestra of Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts. Currently, she is also artistic director of the Polish National Radio Symphony, chief conductor of the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia, and principal guest conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. - Gramophone

Finalists For This Year’s National Book Awards

The winners in each of the five categories—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature, and young people's literature—will be announced at an awards ceremony on November 18. - Publishers Weekly

A Way To Create Less Bland New Architecture?

As part of the £1.5 million research partnership, Humanise said it wants to "challenge the 'blandemic' of dull, soulless development" and improve the way the UK designs and builds its urban environments. - Dezeen

London’s Royal Ballet School At 100

“In the 1980s Margot Fonteyn told me her technique as Britain’s most celebrated ballerina was far inferior to that of any young dancer starting out in the Eighties. ‘And today the technical accomplishment is far greater than it was 40 years ago,’ (Royal Ballet School artistic director Iain) Mackay tells me.” - The Times (UK)

Leon Bottstein Is No Longer President Of Bard College. But…

Botstein, embattled and polarizing, has held on. He has continued to teach at Bard, the liberal arts college 100 miles north of New York City. (He is on sabbatical now to complete a book on Mahler.) He remains the artistic co-director of the Bard Music Festival and runs The Orchestra Now. - The New York Times

100 Years Of A Storied Artist Retreat

After 26 years at the helm of Yaddo, the storied artist retreat currently celebrating its 100th anniversary, Elaina Richardson is moving on. She will be succeeded by Cyra Levenson, deputy director of Learning and Engagement at the Guggenheim Museum, as announced last week. - Hyperallergic

Measuring The Dance World

DDP’s latest data set shows half of the creative teams commissioned for new dance works are entirely male. Less than 10 percent have an equal proportion of men and women. All-women teams are rare. “It basically proves what people have known for a long time,” says DDP founder Elizabeth “Liza” Yntema.  - Dance Magazine

San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater Names New Artistic Director

“Elizabeth Williamson, … 47, currently serves as artistic director of Geva Theatre in Rochester, N.Y., and previously held leadership positions at Hartford Stage in Connecticut and Pioneer Theatre Company in Utah.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)

Disney Goes To Court To Contest Early License Review For ABC

Disney lawyers asked a judge in U.S. District Court in Washington to bar the F.C.C. from undertaking an unusual, early review of the broadcast licenses of the eight stations the company owns and operates. - The New York Times

The New Version Of Destroying Reputations In Hollywood

While the lawsuits differ, they all claim the smear campaigns were carried out through anonymous websites, fabricated social media posts or promotion of unflattering articles and posts on the internet.  - The New York Times

What Are Donors Getting For Investing In KCRW?

You paid for the building with your bonds. You paid for the programming with your pledge drives. You paid the $447,529 salary with your donations. What you got: a 2.0 share, phantom metrics, and eleven million in programming money nobody can itemize. - Gregg Lewis

Why James And Kathryn Murdoch Wanted To Buy New York Magazine And Vox

“The New York magazine business is a really unique model in that world,” James said. “They didn’t go down the road of just search engine optimization and serving all that sort of stuff that we’ve seen other magazines do. They’ve really doubled down on the commitment to this thoughtful long-form journalism.” - Vanity Fair

What’s Really Going On With The Microdrama Boom?

“People used to compare the experience of watching prestige TV shows like The Sopranos to reading a great Victorian novel. By the same token, we can say that watching a microdrama is like being electrocuted onstage at the circus.” But what’s it like for the people making these things? - The New York Times Magazine

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