"Even as the platform gains influence, it raises questions: Is Substack empowering writers to build sustainable careers, or is it just the latest iteration of pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps optimism? Ironically or not, Substack itself thrives on this ouroboros-like discourse." - Quartz
"In (The Life of Herod the Great), Hurston looked to redefine the legacy of Herod, who reigned as king of Judaea from 37 BCE to 4 BCE. … Following Hurston's death, the unfinished manuscript sat in a trunk that was nearly consumed in a fire. Luckily, a neighbor intervened with a hose." - NPR
When considering writing as a function of the body, we face the work’s physical, irreplicable quality. Stories and poems can be shared, but voices cannot; languages can be shared, but consciousnesses cannot. Accepting a global literature, then, is to be inspired, instead of disturbed. - Asymptote Journal
“The longer the sequence of symbols, the more likely that writing is involved,” Schwartz said, distinguishing alphabetic writing from semasiography, which refers to “signs functioning as mnemonic devices to represent ideas but not language.” - Hyperallergic
Elon Musk. Jordan Peterson, Peter Thiel. All three have been repeatedly talking about and referring to — and misconstruing — The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Paradise Lost, and the like. - The Nation
She considers the letter as game, as plot device, as plot vehicle (epistolary novels), historical source, moral statement, advice column fodder, greeting card, and medium for a decades-long personal/philosophical quarrel of her own. - Harper's
It concludes that there is simply not enough time until the universe expires for a defined number of hypothetical primates to produce a faithful reproduction of “Curious George,” let alone “King Lear.” - The New York Times
The unexpectedness of some of Frank’s choices is just what makes the book entertaining. He tackles some 32 novels, in a series of case studies, starting the 20th century not with, say, Joseph Conrad or Henry James, but with HG.Wells’s The Island of Doctor Moreau and André Gide’s The Immoralist. - New Statesman
The things I wrote down so urgently were not fixed thoughts projected from my brain onto the page. What I considered thought was a kind of seeking, a mission. But it was very difficult. This was not writing as rhetoric or catharsis. This was writing as transformation. - The New Yorker
According to studies by the Pew Research Center spanning 2011 to 2021, Americans read an average of 14 books per year — likely pulled up by the number of rare super-readers taking down dozens of books — but a median of just five books per year. - Vox
In his peak decade, from 1967 to 1976, Malzberg wrote at least 68 novels and seven story collections along with scores of still uncollected stories published in many magazines and anthologies. - The Nation
Board books: They’re really hard. Imagine a baby. “The baby has a note taped to them. The note says, 'I can’t read. I can’t talk. I don’t care about stories or plots, classically speaking, or characters as they’re usually defined. What do you have for me?’” - The New York Times
This book has sold approximately a hundred zillion copies (conservative estimate), but let’s just say there might not be enough fact-checking going on. - Mother Jones
The Peruvian-American author made a deep dive, interviewing nearly 250 people for her latest book. Why? "The U.S. has the largest Spanish-speaking population in the world after Mexico. I needed to explain who we are.” - El Pais
And that choice turned some readers' year-end summaries into screeds about their needing to read white cis male authors, which didn’t land particularly well. - The New York Times
