ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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Los Angeles Review Of Books Turns Ten

A self-described “cockeyed optimist,” Tom Lutz admitted he underestimated the volume of work required to launch the publication — not to mention the costs of doing so, both financial and psychological. - Los Angeles Times

The Bookstore That’s Helping Mosul Recover From Three Years Under ISIS

The Mosul Book Forum, which offers concerts and events along with books, opened three months after the city was liberated. Said cofounder Fahad Sabah, "If we have to rebuild our city, we need to rebuild our minds as well as our buildings and streets." - Literary Hub

Device After Device Promises To Save Writers From Their Own Distraction And Procrastination. Could The Latest Batch Succeed?

"Could the new wave of Zen editors and e-ink tablets, tempering tech solutionism with analog nostalgia, reverse this trajectory — and give writers a dedicated device of our own?" Julian Lucas gives some of them a try. - The New Yorker

New Yorker Writers Choose Their Favorite Books Of 2021

Nuff said. - The New Yorker

Mary, Queen Of Scots, Had Serious Paper-Folding Game, As Did Elizabeth I

Mary's final letter was to her cousin Henry III of France. "An international team of researchers have found that Mary used a delicate folding process to seal the letter, ensuring that any tampering would be immediately obvious to its recipient." - The Guardian (UK)

In The Early Days Of Lockdown, We Were All Going To Read Proust Or Something

That's not exactly what happened (perhaps not a surprise, what with global trauma and death?). - The Guardian (UK)

The Best Literary Descriptions Of Snow

Sometimes it's better to read than to experience. "I think I like winter weather best when it’s on the page and not the thing standing between me and the closest bar or the corner bodega when I’m out of popcorn." - LitHub

The Depths Of Art, And Lies

"Nonfiction writers make mistakes, too, of course. But not on the first page. As soon as I discovered my falsehood, I vowed to turn my back on nonfiction forever and write nothing but poetry, a genre in which you’re encouraged to lie." - LitHub

The Poems Of Locked Down Paris Poets

One poet sped home from a teaching gig in Lebanon; another was diagnosed with breast cancer as the pandemic burst forth. "In many ways, their poems also convey just how different their lives were, even though they were living just 5 miles from each other." - NPR

How The Conversations Between Books Has Been Lost

The culture that connected people of my generation was popular television and music. I noticed when I traveled that bookstores were as crammed with seasonal novelties as shoe stores; and used bookstores — this has been one of the saddest developments of my lifetime — had mostly disappeared.  - Liberties Journal

A Crisis Of Copyright For Canada’s Education Publishers

Not only is the Canadian copyright crisis now called “the Canadian flu” in international book publishing circles but—for those who love silver linings—it’s believed to be working as a vaccination-by-example to help ward off similarly disastrous legislation in markets far from Canadian shores. - Publishing Perspectives

Association Of American Publishers Sues To Stop States’ Library E-Book Laws

The trade group says that a Maryland law (along with a similar one pending in New York) requiring publishers who sell e-books to individual customers in the state to also sell to libraries "on 'reasonable' terms" is against federal copyright law and unconstitutional. - Publishers Weekly

How Our Talent For Charades Facilitated Spoken Language

If words are arbitrary and purely a matter of convention, then how did they come to be established in the first place? In practical terms: how did our ancestors create the original words? - Psyche

Ebook And Audiobook Stats From UK Libraries Have A Few Surprises

The sleeper among audiobooks — ahead of Michelle Obama and Kazuo Ishiguro, behind only J.K. Rowling — is mystery writer Brenda Chapman's Cold Mourning. Among ebooks borrowed, at #4, ahead of this year's Booker winner and just behind Ishiguro, is Ellery Adams's The Secret, Book & Scone Society. - The Guardian

How Translating Language Opens A Writer’s Mind

In translating, you pose yourself a question—or it is posed to you by the text; you have no satisfactory answer, though you put something down on paper, and then years later the answer may turn up. Certainly you never forget the question. - LitHub

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