ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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Why Today’s “Best” Writers Don’t Have Readers

Want to be a novelist here in 2023? Well, there are thousands of people on hand to encourage you, tutor you and wave you on your way. Unfortunately, you are liable to end up writing for the very audience most writers want to avoid — people like yourself. - The Critic

An Unknown, Unfinished Novel By Françoise Sagan Arrives On Shelves

"The Four Corners of the Heart … was discovered seven years after Sagan's death in 2004 by her son, and ends on a cliffhanger. … Despite the suggestion that a novelist such as Leïla Slimani or Anne Berest might finish it, it has been published in its incomplete state." - The Guardian

Indignities Of The Old-School Book Tour

One day in 1990, I was flown first class from Dublin to Phoenix, Arizona, to read at the Irish Cultural Centre there. Five people turned up to listen to me. None of them had read my books, and it was clear that none of them had the slightest intention of doing so. - Esquire

Utah School District Reverses Ban On The Bible Due To Inappropriate Subject Matter For Children

"The (Davis School District) committee's reversal is the latest development in the debate over a Utah law allowing parents to challenge 'sensitive materials' available to children in public schools." - AP

Authors Of A Children’s Book About A Gay Penguin Family Join Students In Suing Florida Over Book Ban

"The lawsuit, one of several challenging Florida's policies for launching local book objections, aims to require Lake County officials to make the book — And Tango Makes Three — available to all students" and to have the state's notorious "Don't Say Gay" education laws declared unconstitutional. - Politico

Why Writers Have Difficulty Talking About The Working Class

“There’s a class issue that we don’t always talk about in writing and publishing, where you need to be able to afford this life. The average annual income authors earn from their writing is around $10,000. - The Walrus

A Forgotten Fact: James Baldwin Did Some Of His Best Work While Living In Turkey

He first visited Istanbul in 1961, where, after a long writer's block, he was finally able to finish Another Country. He spent most of that decade living off and on in Turkey, where he wrote most of The Fire Next Time and No Name in the Street. - The Yale Review

Public Libraries Have Become… Social Work Agencies?

Vicky Varga, a twenty-four-year veteran of Edmonton Public Library, described how the city had moved toward fully integrating social work into the activities of its main library branch. - The Walrus

This Artist Hand-Stitches Recreations Of Classic Composition Notebooks

Candace Hicks: "No one else is reading the same books as me in the same order, so in a way, my reading is my life’s work. The hand-stitched notebooks that I make recording the coincidences I uncover are a by-product of that process." - LitHub

Caribbean Literature Is Having A Real Moment

"Kingston-based publisher Tanya Batson-Savage, founder of Blue Banyan Books, likens the region's literary support system to a three-legged stool with international media and festivals, book prizes in the UK, and the rising influence of social media in the book world providing crucial support." - NPR

Reading A Wrinkle In Time And Dealing With Real-World Loss Of A Parent

"I'm in Camazotz, I think as I drive to see my Dad. I identify most strongly with the book's Meg Murry, the ornery teen who not only shares my name and the anguished isolation I felt as an adolescent, but also my emotional reactivity and stubbornness." - Salon

Catalan Separatists Would Like University Classes Taught In The Actual Local Language

Spanish-speaking academics, and some international students, are not into it. An admininstrator: "We’re convinced that we can express ourselves in Catalan and become internationally renowned for our universities. We embrace the world — in Catalan." - The World

What’s The Point Of ‘Diverse’ Retellings Of Jane Austen?

"Am I, a brown-skinned immigrant daughter who never got to read about or see characters like me in novels and films, simply reclaiming these beloved stories as my own? ... Or am I actually letting these stories off the hook, ignoring their oppressive aspects in their very recasting?" - LitHub

HarperCollins And Private Equity Firm KKR Both Want To Buy Simon & Schuster: Report

"Both were among the losing bidders to Penguin Random House's $2.2 billion offer. PRH's acquisition, of course, was blocked by the government last fall." - Publishers Weekly

Our Metaphors For Language Shape How We Think

For example, if we talk about “wasting” or “saving” time, we treat time as if it were a commodity. Or, if we say that we’re “going through” a difficult period, we’re treating time as if it were space through which we move. Like time, language is one of these really complex concepts. - The Conversation

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