ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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Back To The Future: The Atlantic Magazine Returns To Monthly Print

“The decision to restore our print publication frequency to pre-internet levels was not made lightly, but it also seemed logical, given the strength and reach of our magazine, and the wide acclaim it receives." - The Atlantic

How The Nobel Literature Prize Keeps Getting It Right

The fact that the Academy has alighted on a deserving, interesting winner of the prize continues to be strange and miraculous, even if the twenty-first century has had far more hits than misses, many more recipients in the Doris Lessing zone—i.e., timeless—rather than the Rudyard Kipling zone—i.e., timeful (pejorative). - The New Republic

Wikipedia Declares War On Pink Slime AI

The group is clear that they don't wish to ban responsible AI use outright, but instead seek to eradicate instances of badly-sourced, hallucination-filled,  or otherwise unhelpful AI content that erodes the overall quality of the web's decades-old information repository. - Futurism

Nobel Literature Win Demonstrates Importance Of Small Presses

South Korean writer Han Kang's win as the 2024 Nobel Literature laureate is a triumph not only for Korean literature but also a reminder of the huge reach and influence of small press publishing, which takes on so much of the heavy work of introducing literature in translation to a wider audience. - The Guardian

Who Uses Public Libraries In The US? A Look At Statistics

"One thing that doesn’t seem to drive most people to libraries? Financial hardship. In fact, the higher your income, the more regularly you avail yourself of their ... services. And while we can’t say for sure, it seems bookstores and libraries complement each other more than they compete." - The Washington Post (MSN)

Who Invented The Marvel Multiverse? Look Back To Balzac

I believe the first person to master the fictional multiverse was the 19th-century French novelist, Honoré de Balzac, in his monumental work La Comédie Humaine (The Human Comedy, 1829-1847). - The Conversation

Jamaican Diaspora Is Reclaiming Patwa (Patois)

The immigrants to Britain and North America who speak the island's creolized language have usually discouraged their children and grandchildren from using it, believing that complete command of proper English was necessary for the young people to get ahead. Now many of those grown-up children and grandchildren are reconnecting with Patwa. - BBC

Han Kang Wins Nobel Prize For Literature

"A slow-burning literary success who won multiple awards in (Asia) and Europe, Han is the first Asian woman and the first South Korean writer to win the Nobel literature prize." - AP

What Does It Mean For Writing To Be “Great”?

The Swedish Academy is not here to tell you what writers you might like. Greatness is not the same as popularity. It may even be the opposite of popularity... Great writers are the ones who matter whether you read them or not. - The New York Times

Salman Rushdie Is Working On His First Volume Of Fiction Since He Was Almost Murdered

Speaking by videolink from New York to the Lviv BookForum, the author revealed that the book will be a trilogy of novellas about "the three worlds in my life: India and England and America. And they all in some way consider the idea of an ending." - The Guardian

Book Banners Are Trying A Stealth Method To Get Targeted Books Off Library Shelves

Regular weeding — librarians' term for removing from collections books that are out-of-date, damaged, or too seldom checked out to be worth shelf space — is standard practice. Some officials have started using the process to remove books about race or LGBTQ issues, and courts will soon weigh in. - The New York Times

Show Everyone The Money

On the literary importance of money in fiction (even Raymond Carver agreed). - LitHub

What Is The Graphic Novel Equivalent Of Show, Don’t Tell?

It’s the two-apple problem. - LitHub

Some Good News For Books, And Readers

“The number of independent bookstores has grown by 200 from 2022 to 2023, and the number has more than doubled between 2016 and 2023.” Then there’s the internet - for indies. - Salon

Demon Copperhead Author Barbara Kingsolver Knows A Thing Or Two About Anti-Hillbilly Bigotry

And she knows the real Appalachia - one, she says, a certain vice-presidential candidate doesn’t. - The Guardian (UK)

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