ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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“Egghead Paperbacks”, The Publishing Innovation That Changed America

Before 1953, the only paperback books were, literally, pulp novels; the cheap pulp paper on which they were printed gave the genre its name.  Purchasing affordable, durable paperback versions of serious classic or contemporary literature, something we now take for granted, was impossible.  Then came Anchor Books. - The American Scholar

The Atlantic To Launch A New Book Imprint

Atlantic Editions will publish between six and 12 nonfiction titles per year, all trade paperbacks, sold for $12.85. Each book will be “a single-author collection of essays from the Atlantic’s pages, focused on a single topic.” - Publishers Weekly

DeafBlind People Are Adapting ASL Into A Language Of Touch

Protactile, as the new language is called, started with people (usually sighted) signing ASL into the hands of DeafBlind folks.  But many of ASL's signs don't really come across in touch, so DeafBlind people have been gradually developing their own vocabulary and linguistic conventions. - The New Yorker

Rescued From The Clutches Of The Sex Toy Collective, “The Believer” Magazine Will Go Home To McSweeney’s

"After a journey even the creative minds at The Believer could not have imagined, the celebrated literary magazine is back in business and again being run by the company which first owned it." - AP

The “Like” Problem

Why do people have such a problem with “like”? Is it because it simply won’t go away? In 1992, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a robust defence of the word and the way it carries “a rich emotional nuance”, responding to what had already been a decade of criticism. - The Guardian

Toronto Gets A Horror Bookstore

Why an entire bookstore and café devoted to scary things? "Imagine your problems were a ghost, a monster, a serial killer — that the thing stealing your power could be punched or séanced or set on fire. That you could kill it, that you could triumph. Horror is cathartic." - Toronto Star

The Heartbreak And Necessity Of Ending A Feminist Magazine Right Now

Co-founder of Bitch Magazine Andi Ziesler says that "the thing that made us stand out in an increasingly digital marketplace was the fact that we also had a print magazine. But the print magazine became increasingly hard to sustain because the cost of printing kept going up." - Slate

Guess Where You Can Get The Best Free E-Books, Music, And Movies On The Internet?

This should not surprise you, because it's also the best place to get free physical books, music, and movies. - Fast Company

The UN’s Global Emergency Meeting Of Writers

"There were impassioned statements on Ukraine, the killing of the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, social media polarization, climate change, the deluge of disinformation and the global decline of democracy." Writers might not be able to solve it all. - The New York Times

Life As A Book Publisher In Wartime Ukraine

The publishing house Vivat's 117 employees are scattered across the world because "the city of Kharkiv, where Vivat is based, has been under fire from the first day of the war to the present day." Those who stayed sent company equipment to those who left. - LitHub

When Eighth Grade Doodles Become A Career Path

Jessie Sima always loved to doodle horses, or one might honor that art with the word sketch, even. In eighth grade, another kid told Sima, "Someday you’re going to make children’s books." Now they have two horse-related books on the bestseller list. - The New York Times

Building A New World Of Poetic Voices

"Much like the painstaking process of recording cassettes for one another in the pre-playlist age, editing an anthology is intimate, a gesture towards the reader. And just as you never used to be able to put absolutely every tune you wanted to on tape, the same goes for anthologies." - The Guardian (UK)

How To Publish Books In Wartime Ukraine (It Ain’t Easy)

In addition to what was left behind at the office, there was another enormous problem for the publishing house: its warehouses are also located in Kharkiv, from which it is not possible to transfer books because of constant shelling. - LitHub

The Art Of Translating For Journalists

Translators do their best to represent the journalists conducting the interviews, while also acting — intentionally or not — as connectors across cultural divides. - The New York Times

The Sale Of “The Believer” Magazine To The Sex Toy Collective Guy Isn’t Going So Well

The first article the new owner published online was a listicle of hook-up sites with an old contributor's name slapped on the byline. As predictable backlash from literary folk arose, plans were posted for more listicles (mood ring colors, cloud types), then removed weeks later. - The Chronicle of Higher Education

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