Early eighteenth-century readers cannot necessarily have been secure in their ability to understand the books they read, and they were not necessarily encouraged to feel secure. - Lapham's Quarterly
The five nominees each for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, young people's literature, and literature in translation were revealed on Tuesday. Winners will be announced at a ceremony on November 15. - AP
Artists are big on literary science writing; craftsmen are big on explanatory science writing. Artists write beautiful prose; craftsmen write clear prose. Artists write relatively few books and are likely to win big book awards like the Pulitzer Prize; craftsmen are content to be merely prolific, often writing dozens or even hundreds of books. - 3 Quarks Daily
"There is plenty to uncover in this fairy-tale-noir story of illicit sex, betrayal, obsession, and suicide, but you have to believe it is worth digging. Perhaps if I tell you the story is older than the Bible." - 3 Quarks Daily
"You can see that even in the small space of a workshop — I constantly have to say to people, 'It’s okay. You can actually write that'. Because you can see that they’re very worried about what the people in the workshop are going to think." - MSN (The Atlantic)
This attitude toward reading — in which the only well-meaning response to a text is uncritical approbation, and anything else is tantamount to censorship — is not only disingenuous but ultimately, I think, also hostile to literature itself. If no book invites our disapprobation, what is the value of our esteem? - The New York Times
"It has come to our attention that some schools have planned events next week October 1-7, to mark the American Library Association’s “Banned Book Week.” If this is the case, all principals are requested to cancel all events and messaging associated with this observance." - WFAE
The list includes "the usual suspects—Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Michel Houellebecq, Anne Carson (who won’t win the year after Annie Ernaux, come on, the literary cool girls can’t have everything), and Can Xue, who is pretty much always in the mix." - LitHub
"Her fans are legion – among them Ali Smith, Colm Tóibín and Dave Eggers – and she has won many honours, including the International Booker prize." But you'll never find her work at the behemoth online. - The Guardian (UK)
