"The novel is an extremely flexible form. It can come out in countless shapes, include infinite content, and end up almost any length. Let’s call the lower limit of a novel 40,000 words. Long novels like Infinite Jest and The Stand are more than 10 times that length, and that’s not even getting into series or In Search of...
A clunky, outmoded piece of software called OverDrive had been the standard app for getting reading material from the library onto your Kindle. Instead of merely upgrading, OverDrive (the company) created a new, far more user-friendly app called Libby which debuted but only started getting public attention over the past year. - Engadget
"There may be an ideological component to publishing Pence and Conway, but it has nothing to do with ideas. It has to do with fetishizing ideological diversity, in which publishing garbage books from prominent Republicans is an end in and of itself. These deals only underline what’s been increasingly obvious for decades now: The commitment to free speech and...
Just ask novelist Ali Smith, who finished the last of a four-book sprint during the first lockdown: "I felt the usual failure ... Knackered. Curious as to whether the book would hold water, and as for the series: no idea. Hope, despair. All these feelings passed in the 30 seconds it takes to toast something that’s done with...
Running an independent press isn't easy in an era of consolidation - and in a pandemic. Seven Stories' editor-in-chief: "As a business the time of greatest risk—and very possibly also of greatest reward—is right now, this year, next year. We’re on a growth curve, which has not always been the case. The marketplace for books actually grew in America...
Crime fiction is, roughly speaking, concerned with plot - and literary fiction (again, roughly speaking) with the interior of characters' thoughts. Sometimes, that means literary fiction doesn't deal well with the more plot-driven side of rape narratives, and crime fiction doesn't deal well with the emotional effects. So: "Especially where complex stories about sexual assault are concerned, mixing genres...
That would be the book (Dove mi trovo, or Whereabouts) she wrote first in Italian and then translated into English - her first novel written that way since she began her decades-long love affair with the language, and with Rome. - The Guardian (UK)
Just ask Adrienne Rich. "Rich’s predicament, as a mother who was also an artist, remains a predicament today. And what she did with that predicament, what she did with her rage and frustration, remains deeply instructive. Of Woman Born lays bare the cultural and medical and economic practices that define motherhood, and exposes how our everyday experience of mothering is shaped...
“Canadian authors will have fewer houses to present their manuscripts to,” explained executive director Kate Edwards. “A culture of ‘blockbuster’ publishing will become more entrenched. All of this will increase pressure on independent presses who already struggle to compete in a concentrated market dominated by large global companies.” - The Walrus
In July of 2019, Microsoft invested a billion dollars, which allowed OpenAI to create a supercomputer with two hundred and eighty-five thousand C.P.U. cores, ten thousand G.P.U.s, and four hundred gigabits per second of network connectivity per server. Microsoft claims that it ranks in the top five supercomputers in the world, processing more than twenty-three thousand teraflops per second....
"Few sounds are as difficult to master as the rounded Os, erratic As, dropped consonants and smushed syllables of the Philadelphia accent — or Filelfia acksent, as the locals would say." Winslet says it's one of the two trickiest accents she's ever had to learn; here's a look at the hard work she put in to get it right....
Michelle Boone’s appointment "may mark a turning point for the foundation, which has been criticized as insular and slow to respond to changing times. In addition to serving as commissioner for the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Boone is wrapping up her tenure as chief program and civic engagement officer for Navy...
"Milman Parry was arguably the most important American classical scholar of the 20th century, by one reckoning 'the Darwin of Homeric Studies.' At age 26, this young man from California stepped into the world of Continental philologists and overturned some of their most deeply cherished notions of ancient literature. Homer, Parry showed, was no 'writer' at all. The Iliad...
“A lot of customers, they really don’t even think about fonts or look at fonts. It’s only when they zoom in, that they see a g is different! It’s really , once you use them, what feels natural? Are there quirky characters that get in the way? Do the numerals feel right, and readable? I think we’re stretching what’s...
"I think this week marks a sea change in publishers’ interest in their authors’ behavior. The cancellation of Bailey’s books came just a day after news broke that hundreds of employees at Simon & Schuster have submitted a petition demanding that the publisher cancel its two-book deal with former vice president Mike Pence and refuse to sign any additional...
