ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

WORDS

The Booker Shortlist Is, Like, Really Good

Sure, the money’s on Percival Everett to win for his clever, excoriating James, but of the five others, four would also be worthy winners, and are worth your investment of money and/or time to read. - The Observer (UK)

Books That Can Provide Light In The Darkness

“Probably there will always remain a snobbery about the optimistic; certainly there endures the belief that optimism is inherently naive.” But if you need that, buy these books in print now, we guess. - The Guardian (UK)

Granta’s Editor On Working While In Deep Grief

Sigrid Rausing: “When you’re working on a text there’s always a sense of loss when it’s done. But finishing the translation of a book by my best friend who had just died brought a much greater sense of loss, because I was no longer with her.” - The Guardian (UK)

What’s It Like To Write A New John Le Carre Novel?

Ask his son, Nick Harkaway. “I had actually decided I wouldn’t do it,” he says. Then his brother stepped in. - The New York Times

It’s Only Been Three Days, And “The Handmaid’s Tale” Is Back On The Bestseller List

Since the presidential election results became clear early Wednesday morning, Margaret Atwood's novel has been high on Amazon's list of top-selling books, as are Orwell’s 1984 and Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. All three were popular during Trump's first term. - AP

India Lifts Ban On Import Of Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” — For A Surprising Reason

And that reason is bureaucracy at its finest. - The Guardian

Rachel Cusk’s Novel “Parade” Wins Goldsmiths Prize

Cusk was announced as the winner of the £10,000 prize, which recognises 'mould-breaking' fiction, … on Wednesday. … Parade comprises the stories of various artists, all called G. One of the Gs – based on artist Georg Baselitz – paints upside down; another is a woman with a 'wild' past, now unhappily married." - The Guardian

The History Behind The English Language’s Most Famous Swear Word

Fuck has an enormous range of uses across many parts of speech, as this dictionary details: sexual and nonsexual, positive and negative, literal and figurative, funny and violent. For any situation, there’s prob­ably some sense, some expression or catchphrase, some proverb, some intonation that can be brought to the table. - LitHub

Major European Publisher Will Start Using AI To Translate Some Novels Into English

"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

Arguments Over Corporate Sponsorship And Gaza War Plague Canada’s Giller Prize

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

That Idea Chimps Could Randomly Type Shakespeare? Naaah!

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

Dear Writers, Please Remember To Take Care Of Your Readers

In student writing, teachers and professors are paid to do the reading. But books? That’s a whole different exchange. - LitHub

It Turns Out Free Pizza Was A Great Bribe For Reading

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

The New Color Kindle May Be Having A Weird Glitch

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

The Life Of A Writer Is Often Quite Choppy, Says Author Deborah Levy

"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)

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