While some in the literary world are snobs, one author says she considers the best of historical fiction “a lens forged from the experience of the past, through which we may view the concerns of the present with renewed clarity.” - Irish Times
“Lauriane Nicol threw herself wholeheartedly into the creation of the Prix Gouincourt (gouine is a slang term for lesbian), an ironic hat tip to France's most celebrated literary award, the Prix Goncourt.” - Le Monde (Archive Today)
The actor, who is also a talented and award-winning screenwriter, told Stephen Colbert, “I end up just going, ‘I don’t need you to fucking rewrite what I’ve just written! Will you fuck off? Just fuck off! I’m so annoyed.’” - The Guardian (UK)
For most of human history, culture was exclusively oral. Knowledge was transmitted by speech, and what could be transmitted was what could be remembered. Oral culture was “aggregative rather than analytic”—full of redundancy, traditionalist in disposition, and embedded in the “human lifeworld,” rather than allowing abstract thought. - The Baffler
If we consider literacy not as the ability to parse simple sentences but as the capacity to comprehend and enjoy complex texts, and ultimately as a sensibility that approaches the world itself as a text that requires interpretation, it’s obvious we live in an unprecedented decline of what neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf calls “deep literacy.” - The Baffler
Boomers, X-ers, and most Millennials will just see it as a pair of numbers. Gen Z-ers may recognize it as what their younger relatives have started yelling constantly. Yet the key thing about “6-7”, especially for lexicographers, is that it's unclear what exactly the word (if that’s the right term) even means. - CBS News
At an “unlikely creative hub” in New York’s financial district, there’s an old electric typewriter which has been attached to a chatbot trained on Baldwin’s writings. You insert a sheet of paper, type a question — asking for personal “guidance,” not about Baldwin himself — and he/it will answer. - The New York Times
If the reading revolution represented the greatest transfer of knowledge to ordinary men and women in history, the screen revolution represents the greatest theft of knowledge from ordinary people in history. - The Free Press
Q: Why do you think people still talk to you? IC: Most people don’t read bylines, and the vast majority of people I interview have no idea who I am. - Columbia Journalism Review
Eliot was not only a prolific, but also a powerful prose writer. Impressively, he emerges even in the earliest of this work as if fully formed. His voice is mature and assured in a 1909 review published in the Harvard Advocate, where he already perfected the performance of having read everything. - Hudson Review
Seven deep-pocketed philanthropic foundations are coming together to help fill in the gaps. The coalition announced on Tuesday the creation of the Literary Arts Fund, which will distribute "at least" $50 million through grants to various nonprofit organizations across the country over the next five years. - NPR
“Books-A-Million … is in the process of opening 15 new outlets this year, which will keep the total number of outlets at over 220 spread across 32 states.” Both new and existing locations are getting redesigned interiors and a wider selection of titles; new stores average about 15,000 square feet. - Publishers Weekly
College professors of English Johanna Winant and Dan Sinykin thought they had written a book to help other undergrad-level instructors to teach close reading. It’s turned out that their work is helping high school teachers learn how to get their students to read and understand whole books. - Slate (MSN)
“Citing a chronic shortage of financial backing for independent publishers and nonprofits dedicated to writing and reading, a coalition of seven charitable foundations has established a Literary Arts Fund that will distribute a minimum of $50 million over the next five years.” - AP
