That includes Stephen King, who testified at an antitrust trial against the merger. Industry insiders agree. The president of the Authors Guild said, "Reduced competition will likely make the sector even less diverse, and that's bad not just for authors, but also for readers." - NPR
"Enjoying a book alfresco is one of summer’s simple, iconic joys, right up there with running through a sprinkler, spotting the evening’s first firefly or scraping a flat wooden spoon across a freezer-burned cup of Italian ice." - The New York Times
Outdated terminology such as “Indians of North America” has remained in these term lists despite changing use in society and no longer matches the language used in the books themselves. - The Conversation
Said one of them, "This is about a legacy white employee who was in danger of losing her job for performance reasons, so she cynically appropriated the language of diversity and inclusion to try and hold onto that job — which if she lost it might have actually gone to a person of color." - Gawker
Today, critics can almost take for granted that we have emotional relationships with literary works—notably, ones of attachment. But if the literary work is “an object of the affections,” does it love critics back?4 Do critics rely on such a fiction? - Public Books
The age of the Tudors in England is when words about sexuality and scatology started to be considered profane rather than simply matter-of-fact. Yet the most seriously offensive words were still those tied up with religious faith. - History Today
Elena Bulgakova preserved her late husband's manuscript for 20 years, retyped it, got it published first in translation in Soviet-occupied Estonia, then, in Russian, abroad. An uncensored version of the novel finally appeared in the USSR in 1973 — and Soviet readers couldn't quite make sense of it. - JSTOR Daily
During 45 minutes of testimony, King laid out the changes he’s witnessed over a half-century career in collaboration with a number of different publishers. He described independent publishers becoming increasingly “squeezed” by conglomerates. - Los Angeles Times
At the risk of offending most believers, it is necessary to state a simple but unacknowledged truth: It is impossible to understand the full glory of Christianity without understanding its poetry. - First Things
A win for the government would not appear to bode well for Simon & Schuster. Penguin Random House is already a giant and will be just fine either way. But S&S finds itself in a tricky position that belies its mojo over the past two years. - Vanity Fair
The prize honors a book-length work of imaginative fiction with $25,000. The nine shortlisted books will be considered by a panel of five jurors. The winner will be announced later this year on October 21st, 2022, Ursula K. Le Guin’s birthday. - Electric Literature
Linear Elamite is a set of characters that was used in and around the ancient city of Susa (in modern-day Iran) around 4,000 years ago, and it's one of only a few surviving ancient writing systems that scholars still can't decipher at all — until now. (Maybe.) - Smithsonian Magazine
Now, as a life-long pseud, I learned years ago how to float in an implied familiarity with an author or their work, without telling an outright lie. I have a shell like a Galapagos Tortoise when challenged on this sort of thing. But I have noticed that such libertine manners are fast becoming normalised. - The Critic
Could it be that the stories of the average middle-class white man — the ones we grew up on — were once a novelty? In one sense, yes: there are novels that were as groundbreaking and shocking then as they are considered passé today. - The Critic
"I don’t begin with the idea of plundering the word for meanings; it’s rather a discovery, a saving grace, something that clinches or copes. (I’m inclined to look up ‘copes’ here…It came to mind just now, no doubt via the alliteration, but I’m curious about the lexical meaning. I’ve a hunch it’s worth looking up." - The Life of...
