"Veen Bosch & Keuning (VBK) – the largest publisher in the Netherlands, acquired by Simon & Schuster earlier this year – is 'using AI to assist in the translation of a limited number of books. … This project contains less than 10 titles – all commercial fiction.'" - The Guardian
It seems the director of the C$100,000 literary award had been telling authors that she was working to sever the Giller's ties to its longtime lead sponsor, Scotiabank. Then she turned around and doubled down on the Scotiabank-Giller relationship. - Toronto Star
The results indicated that even if every chimp in the world was enlisted and able to type at a pace of one key per second until the end of the universe, they wouldn't even come close to typing out the Bard's works. - BBC
Or at least, that’s how Millennials remember the Book It! program, which is - shockingly - still going strong, 40 years in, with personal pan pizzas for kids in K-6th grade who read a certain number of books. - The New York Times
Amazon is, perhaps unsurprisingly, getting hammered on its own site for an occasional yellow band at the bottom of the Kindle Colorsoft screen. - The Verge
"Levy has written nine novels, two of which have been shortlisted for the Booker prize, and is clearly of the view that fiction is the real art. Nonetheless, it is her nonfiction, or her sort-of-nonfiction, that has won her legions of fans.” - The Guardian (UK)
“The first thing customers see when they walk into the Strand Book Store in Manhattan is a table of anonymous books with covers wrapped like Christmas presents and titles replaced by vague descriptions.” Customers are loving this new marketing technique. - The New York Times
Anne Michaels, author of the spare, gorgeous Held says, "You can use brutal language to describe brutality, but that’s a lie; language can’t represent brutality. It’s exactly the same when I’m trying to get at the most beautiful, profoundly intense experience of intimacy.” - The Guardian (UK)
For such a self-professed grump, she never left a reader hanging after a seemingly desultory setup. There was always a reward. And the jokes still work. - The New Yorker
A recent Nielsen BookData and GfK Entertainment report on global book sales for the first eight months of the year shows “rising revenues in fiction, while sales of nonfiction books are declining in many regions. The TikTok community BookTok is playing an increasingly important role.” - Publishers Weekly
During her 11-year term, Suzanne Nossel, who was previously a top exec at Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International USA, oversaw a major expansion of PEN America's activities and the sextupling of its budget — as well as furious arguments among the membership over the war in Gaza. - Publishers Weekly
"The word, used by singer Charli XCX as the title of her sixth studio album, has been defined as 'characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.' Collins lexicographers said on Friday that in the phrase 'brat summer,' it became 'one of the most talked about words of 2024.'" - AP
I think this is important: memories and ideas happen in a place. An essay is a place for ideas; it has to feel like a place. It has to give one the feeling of entering a room. - The Georgia Review
"The Star-Ledger, Times of Trenton and South Jersey Times will all move to online-only editions. … But because the Ledger will shut down its plant in Montville, New Jersey, the long-running Jersey Journal" — which covers the cities across the Hudson from Manhattan — "will shut down entirely after 157 years of operation." - Gothamist
