All Seasons is staking out territory that some mainstream publishers are wary to venture into, by courting former Trump officials who staunchly supported the president through the bitter end of his administration. - The New York Times
As students of history know, fashions ebb and flow; it’s increasingly clear that the historical novel is being embraced and reinvented. - The New York Times
"The Justice Department has closed its year-old criminal investigation into former Trump national security adviser John Bolton and dropped a related lawsuit connected to the publication of his book about the ex-President's diplomatic bungling. The … criminal investigation had scrutinized whether Bolton's book illegally revealed national security information, while the lawsuit had sought to grab royalties from Bolton for...
The little mark's use in texts goes back at least to Aristarchus, the second-century BC compiler and editor of Homer's epics; it continued through the Middle Ages, the birth of printing, the mass market for books, and the advent of text messaging. And it meant something different in each of those times; these days, it seems to serve at...
"Germany has begun to open to travelers and the Frankfurt Book Fair is planning on hosting a live, in-person fair this October 20-24. 'It will be smaller in scale and more focused,' Juergen Boos, the fair director, told PW. A number of virtual events are also being planned and the city of Frankfurt will again host author events for...
The unionization effort has created an uncomfortable moment for the writers at The New Yorker, who have the kind of jobs and influence every journalist wants but few attain. - The New York Times
Books can be intensely powerful for some people, especially when the books do the work of repairing past pain. "'So many queer people 'have been through immense pain growing up in our adolescence,' Dr. Matos told me. Attempts by the broader culture to 'limit who we loved, what we desire, what we do with our bodies' abound. In these...
First, meme well (and second, make She Memes Well the title of your memoir). In her new book, comedian and meme power user Quinta Brunson "breaks down her journey from struggling stand-up comedian to being recognized by strangers all over the world. The book includes hilarious anecdotes about growing up in West Philadelphia, being a Black woman, dating and...
Living authors like Kate Mosse and Philip Pullman are worried because as Britain exits the EU, protections have changed. "Authors and publishers fear that changing the rules could mean that cheap international editions of a book would pour into the UK, eroding the money authors could make from a domestic sale." - The Guardian (UK)
Komunyakaa: Writing poetry "feels like one has been chosen as a caretaker of observation. There's a certain reality, but also there's a certain kind of dreaming, and that place takes us someplace that we never dreamt of." - NPR
For decades, the literary world disdained historical fiction. "It has been seen as its own fusty fashion, relentlessly uncontemporary and easy to caricature, filled with mothballed characters who wear costumes rather than clothes, use words like 'Prithee!' while having modern-day thoughts, and occasionally encounter villains immediately recognizable by their yellow teeth or suspicious smell. What light could such novels...
The writers, contributors, and freelance editorial workers are prepared to produce a strike issue - or a Labor Peace issue. It all depends on how negotiations end up. - LitHub
Taylor's Real Life hit many "best of" lists for 2020, and a collection of loosely linked short stories comes out this month. "My most formative early reading was the Bible, which haunts me still, and the first author I loved was Pat Conroy, because the lyrical language of The Prince of Tides sounded so much like the Bible. I tried to imitate...
