"When someone says we ought to separate the art from the artist, they’re saying: 'Remove the stain.' Let the work be unstained. But that’s not how stains work. We watch the glass fall to the floor; we don’t get to decide whether the wine will spread." - The Guardian (UK)
"If we all know that the largest children’s publisher in the country, the one with the most access to schools, is capitulating behind closed doors and asking authors to change their works ... there’s no way you as a marginalized author can find an audience." - The New York Times
As we await Monday's prize announcements, here's a look back at Jennifer Egan, Colson Whitehead, Louise Erdrich, Colson Whitehead (again), Cormac McCarthy, Elizabeth Strout, Marilynne Robinson, and many more. - LitHub
Maybe this isn't great timing - for the streamers, anyway. For instance: "On Friday, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced that the company’s streaming division, including HBO Max (soon known as Max), made $50 million in profits during the first quarter of 2023." - HuffPost
As The NYT elegantly puts it, "the art and antiquities market had for too long been a 'no-questions-asked' environment." Now, those questions are being asked - often by prosecutors. - The New York Times
The Bradford Literature Festival used AI to generate its marketing images this year. Illustrator "Chris Mould was due to hold a masterclass at the event, but now says: 'How can I stand under their roof and tell people they can go to art school?'"- BBC
You wouldn't know it from Adele, true, but "according to acoustic scientists at the University of Oldenburg in Germany, lead singers have been getting quieter over the years." - NPR
Says one expert, "I was very startled by the degree to which the two sides are apart. ... It was really shocking to see how far apart they were, and how many issues the studios refused to even engage on. So in my view, this is going to be a long strike." - Vice
"Asco was known for its glam looks and outrageous conceptual antics and for redefining what Chicano art could be," but as former members fihgt about credit for the artworks, its history is starting to crumble. - Los Angeles Times
"What’s amazing is how young looking and exuberant this ballet is. ... Mr. Balanchine did all these dark, morbid ballets toward the end of his life. Jerry was going on like he was going to live forever." - The New York Times
Wow, did that not go as planned. Apparently, Yahoo was also looking at Hulu. "Either of those, with hindsight being 20/20, would have been a better acquisition." - Variety
Beloved children's author Mo Willems, who is bringing a Pigeon opera to the Kennedy Center, says children's lit and opera have commonalities, including big emotions. "It’s direct communication. It’s interior dialogue. It’s self-discovery. And both forms really have been pushed off to the side." - The New York Times
Annie Ernaux, writing about a French superstore, "faces the harder emotional truth: you can hate everything the superstore stands for, ... the superstore offers a real opportunity to feel the edges of your own anonymity, one you don’t get anywhere else." - Paris Review
Cultural Emergency Response, based in the Netherlands, coordinates "first responses to damage and to prevent future damage by shielding sites against threats posed by war, natural disaster and climate change." - The New York Times
