With (far) more than 350 dialects of indigenous languages spoken across the United States, and few interpreters, vital information can fall away. "When you convey an idea from an indigenous language to Spanish and then to English, there’s a big risk of losing crucial details." - El País
Or, you might. "The video was posted to TikTok on Sunday and was flooded with supportive comments. ... On Monday, Warner tweeted that the novel became No 1 in Amazon YA sales, and soon after it was No 1 across all book genres." - The Guardian (UK)
An ongoing $200 million renovation of the 1911 landmark has sought to open its doors and world-famous collections to more people — and not just the scholars and authors that have long traipsed through its marble halls — as the demand for public space in a crowded city has soared since the pandemic. - The New York Times
"Libraries in England generate at least £3.4 billion in value a year through services supporting children's literacy, digital inclusion and health, a study has found. Researchers … discovered that the services that a typical branch provides in a year are worth £1 million." - The Guardian
"The Wiener Zeitung, which is owned by the Austrian government but editorially independent, suffered a sharp decrease in revenue after a recent law dropped a requirement for companies to pay to publish changes to the commercial registry in the print edition." (It will continue publishing online.) - AP
Ten years ago, almost half of Ukrainians said Russian was their first language; now, 21% say so (or, at least, admit to it). These days, anger at the language of the war criminals is hardly surprising. Ukraine's government wants to make Ukrainian-ness civic, not linguistic. Can that work? - Prospect (UK)
Goodreads was solid, and then Amazon bought it. Now it's got some major issues. "Former employees said Amazon seemed happy to mine Goodreads for its user-generated data and otherwise let it limp along with limited resources." - Washington Post
Pot, kettle, fine points, and dark and stormy nights - they all came from what was, at the time, original thought and phrasing (but sorry writers; please let the now-worn phrases lie where they originated). - LitHub
Or just the writing of it, says author Yomi Adegoke, author of The List. "You’re like: ‘Oh, I just made this thing up’ and everyone’s, like, reading your subconscious." - The Guardian (UK)
"Khalifa is a Syrian novelist, poet and screenwriter whose work has been awarded the Naguib Mahfouz medal for literature, one of the Arab world’s highest literary honours. His soulful, often wry stories traverse time but are centred on the Syrian city of Aleppo" - which has been destroyed. - The Guardian (UK)
"Fans of the publisher World Editions, which has brought translations of work by Maryse Condé, Amin Maalouf, Pilar Quintana, Jaap Robben and Zhang Yueran to English-language audiences, has found a new owner—none other than the US director Christine Swedowsky." - LitHub
First, look to its (storied) past: "With its mix of bubbly enthusiasm and Gen-X skepticism, Paper became the scrappy kid sibling to the argumentative Village Voice and the lustrous Interview. Its readers were beautiful people and misfits, insiders and outsiders." - The New York Times
"By tapping into TikTok’s ability to drive attention to books and its vast trove of user data, ByteDance could boost its own authors at the expense of others and make BookTok less organic and user-driven, a prospect that worries many TikTok users and authors." - The New York Times
As momentum grows behind the criticism of the museum, it is a good time for all of us to consider how we value and engage with the work of translators. - The Conversation
How do those books and authors strike me now? For one thing, that mini pantheon makes clear why old-fashioned literary histories employed phrases like “the bubble reputation,” “Fortune’s wheel” and “the whirligig of taste.” - Washington Post
