Modest as the festivities have been, I am certain that in 100 years there will be no poem whose centenary is the object of comparable celebration. This seems to me true for the simple reason that poetry is dead. Indeed, it is dead in part because Eliot helped to kill it. - The New York Times
"For years, someone impersonated authors and agents, editors and publishers, trying to steal unpublished book manuscripts from high profile authors … and writers of more obscure works. … On Friday, Filippo Bernardini is expected to plead guilty to wire fraud in front of a magistrate court judge in Manhattan." - The New York Times
Many writers and other figures are calling for Bulgakov's home in Kiev, a museum since Soviet days, to be closed, arguing that he was very much against Ukrainian independence and insulted Ukrainians in his novel The White Guard. Ukraine's culture minister is resisting the demands. - The Observer (UK)
Or rather, it's also publishing's tropes problem - a short-hand way of analyzing some plots, especially in romance fiction, that can lead to, shall we say, less than thoughtful book comparisons and recommendations. - Slate
"For almost a year now, it’s been clear that the HarperCollins People Team and the lawyers from our parent company, News Corp, hope that our bargaining committee can be scolded into thinking we are asking for too much—that we can be discouraged into bargaining against ourselves." - N+1
Mail mattered then, as it had from the beginnings of the republic through the 1970s, more or less, when the falling price of long-distance phone calls and the fax machine devastated written correspondence. - New Criterion
"Awards ceremonies are back, baby. For the first time since 2019, your favorite writers got to dress up and attend a fancy party or two this year. From the Pulitzer to the Booker, the Nebula to the Edgar, here are the winners of the biggest book prizes of 2022." - Literary Hub
The word “information” predates Gutenberg. But once printing took off and books proliferated, new kinds of books had to be invented to track, organize and summarize the relentless flood of data they generated: encyclopedias, bibliographies, dictionaries, multilingual bibles, summaries, herbals. - The Wall Street Journal
"This past year has marked seventy-five years of Partition, a process of fracturing that continues in the imagination and in memory. Each generation has posed new questions, searching for places where the stories can be found — in statistics, in stubborn reticence, in a pair of gold bangles." - The New Yorker
"With more than 77 billion views globally to date, TikTok's collection of literary-minded creators and clips, ... (has) (a lot of) drama, much of which has practical implications for the book world and beyond.... Here's a look back on the biggest, baddest, and oddest BookTok controversies of the year." - Vulture
"The conflict is spawning a new lexicon. Some of the words and phrases that have entered wider usage in Ukrainian society date back to the beginning of the war in 2014, others to ... Soviet-era military slang that has become popularised again, and others are entirely new coinages." - The Guardian
The return of shoppers to physical retailers was good news for bookstores. ABA reported a record number of members, while Barnes & Noble began opening new outlets in the year and expects to open 30 new stores in 2023. Total bookstore sales through October were up 7.5% over the comparable period in 2021. - Publishers Weekly
"The crusade against Gender Queer has largely driven its popularity and increased the size of (Maia) Kobabe's royalty checks. The memoir has sold more than 96,000 copies and has been translated into Spanish, French, Polish and other languages. It's on the racks in airports." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
