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Gawker Is Closing Down.  Yes, Again.

"Gawker, the snarky pop-culture site rebooted in mid-2021, is shutting down — for a second time, with the CEO of parent company Bustle Digital Group citing the need to prioritize 'better-monetizing sites.' ... The original Gawker went dormant in 2016 ... after losing a legal battle with wrestler Hulk Hogan." - Variety

Book Twitter’s Crucial Role In Publishing  — And What Could Happen If Twitter Goes Bust

"In the words of author and writing coach Paulette Perhach, 'It feels like the castle we made is being swept off the table by a billionaire's tantrum.' To get to the heart of what’s at stake, let's look at the role Book Twitter plays in shaping the publishing process." - Esquire

Henry Louis Gates Jr. On What Makes An African-American Work Of Literature A “Classic”

"(It) has the uncanny capacity to take the seemingly mundane details of the day-to-day African American experience of its time and trans­mute those details and the characters' actions into something that transcends its ostensible subject’s time and place, its specificity." - Literary Hub

Penguin Random House CEO Steps Down

Madeline McIntosh, a popular figure in publishing circles who steered Penguin Random House U.S. through the recent Covid-19 pandemic and championed a more inclusive company, is leaving as the publisher has seen its U.S. market share decline. - The Wall Street Journal

HarperCollins To Lay Off 5 Percent Of Its North American Staff As Strike Continues

"The news of the layoffs comes a few days after HC said it had agreed to work with a mediator in an attempt to end the ongoing strike by some 240 union members." - Publishers Weekly

The Rise (Again) Of Barnes & Noble

The chain, long in contraction, is expanding for the first time in a decade. It plans to open 30 new stores this year. It is increasingly seen as an ally, rather than the enemy, of indie booksellers. - The New York Times

Marie Kondo Never Told People To Give Everything Up

But when the author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up revealed that with kids, she's let go of trying to be so tidy, the internet freaked out. - NPR

How Jane Austen Wins Over New Fans In 2023

She's on TikTok, of course - or at least, her new fans are, and they're heading to Bath in droves. One academic even suggests that "Austen is the most memed writer after Shakespeare." - The Observer (UK)

Joan Didion’s Archives Are Going To The New York Public Library

The personal literary archives of Didion and her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, contain 240 linear feet of material - including her research for The White Album and Slouching Towards Bethlehem, drafts of screenplays, and even her footprint as a newborn. - The New York Times

This Viral Star Can’t Read – But Now He’s Found BookTok

Oliver James, a 34-year-old TikTok star, was functionally illiterate - until he joined forces with TikTok's book-loving community, BookTok. Now he's got a plan to read 100 books in 2023. - NPR

The New Poet Hero Of Young Chileans

Garbriela Mistral, the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, "is being reclaimed by a new generation of feminist and L.G.B.T. activists as an anti-establishment icon — and igniting a debate about how we appropriate literary figures from the past." - The New York Times

A Copy Editor Disavows Copyediting

It’s clear that copyediting as it’s typically practiced is a white supremacist project, that is, not only for the particular linguistic forms it favors and upholds, which belong to the cultures of whiteness and power, but for how it excludes or erases the voices and styles of those who don’t or won’t perform this culture. - LitHub

Tales From The Road: The Book-signings/readings No One Comes To

In-person author appearances are back in local bookstores, after a long pandemic absence. And for every standing-room-only reading featuring a massively well-known name, there might be a quiet event, with empty chairs outnumbering occupied ones. - Seattle Times

Intriguing Questions About How AI Trains On Large Language Models

Do they merely memorize training data and reread it out loud, or are they picking up the rules of English grammar and the syntax of C language? Are they building something like an internal world model—an understandable model of the process producing the sequences? - The Gradient

Teachers In A Florida County Cover All Books In Their Classrooms, Fearful Of Felony Charges

"The Manatee County School District directed teachers to remove all books that had not yet been approved by a specialist from their classroom libraries. ... Many teachers have chosen to close access altogether, since making unvetted books available could lead to felony prosecution." - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

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