Generally, U.S. history pages follow one strict interpretation of history written in the 1960s and ’70s, and most editors treat these matters as settled. When information that contradicts these histories is added, some editors claim that new additions constitute “presentism,” or “cancel culture.” - Slate
The Toronto branch of the Dickens Fellowship, a group of dedicated Charles Dickens fans who have celebrated the birthday of the Immortal Boz annually since 1905. - Toronto Star
The flap over the French underscores the ongoing project to revise terminology in ways that are meant to be more inclusive — but which I fear are counterproductive and end up inviting mockery and empowering the right. - The New York Times
"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
"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
"(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
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
"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 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
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
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)
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
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
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
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
