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Michelle Williams Creating An Audiobook For Britney Spears Is Part Of A Bigger Trend

"Narrating audiobooks is closer to theater than it is TV or film. For one, it's a more direct, more spare performance compared to screen acting, and ... it's straight-up an endurance test." - NPR

Fascinating List – Here Are The Most-Banned Books In US Prisons

The list includes Amy Schumer’s memoir The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, flagged by Florida officials for graphic sexual content and for being “a threat to the security, order, or rehabilitative objectives. - The Guardian

You Should Never, Ever Tell David Sedaris Your Humiliating Stories

Well, unless you want them recounted in his writings or on stage, as Gabb Schivone learned the hard way. - Yahoo! (Slate)

Mario Vargas Llosa Says He Has Published His Last Book

"In a postscript to the new book, Le dedico mi silencio (I Give You My Silence), the 87-year-old novelist writes: 'I think I’ve finished this book. I’d now like to write an essay on Sartre, my teacher as a young man. It will be the last thing I write.'" - The Guardian

Why Toni Morrison Left Publishing

In her last years as an editor, Morrison helped lead the chorus of those calling to take up arms against conglomeration. - LitHub

The Writing Machines: They Won’t Kill Good Writing

These days, it is something of a fool’s errand to try to determine whether a text encountered online is written by a human or a chatbot. You might think a text sounds cheesy, canned, or off-the-shelf, but isn’t a lot of human writing just that? - Boston Review

A New High Schoolers’ Prize From Penguin Random House To Help Combat Book Bans

"The Freedom of Expression Award invites applicants to write about one banned book that changed their life and why. The $10,000 (£8,168) prize will be awarded to a high-school student planning to attend university in 2024." - The Guardian

Scholastic Reverses Course, Won’t Segregate Diverse Titles For Kids At Book Fairs

"The educational company, which both publishes and distributes books, waded into hot water last month after it confirmed that it was changing its policy for its middle school book fair offerings, … putting most of the titles dealing with race, gender and sexuality into their own collection." - NPR

British Library Puts Chaucer Manuscripts Online

In a “major milestone” for the library, which holds the world’s largest surviving collection of Chaucer, it is hoped the digital platform will enable new research into the 14th-century poet, courtier, soldier, diplomat, and MP who is most famous for his Middle English epic, The Canterbury Tales. - The Guardian

How Much Does It Matter Whether Fiction Is Written By A Human Or A Chatbot?

"In moments of doubt, I think of Gertrude Stein’s infamous line, “A rose is a rose is a rose.” Isn’t a word a word — still a word — regardless of who, or what, wrote it? … And how do we evaluate if a machine’s work is worth reading?" - Boston Review

Spotify CEO Talks About New Audiobook Service And AI Creation

Premium subscribers get 15 hours free a month and can top that off with discrete credit card payments if they want more. “We are seeing them doing that." - Deadline

The Frankfurt Book Fair Has A Long History Of Political Calculation

A commercial book fair might not immediately seem a site of position-taking, but as we discovered when researching our book, The Frankfurt Book Fair and Bestseller Business (2020), the fair has political roots. - The Conversation

92NY Puts Its Entire Literary Events Series On Hold

"92NY, one of the city’s leading cultural organizations, announced Monday that it was putting its prestigious literary reading series on pause, following an outcry over its decision to cancel an appearance last week by a prominent writer who had been critical of Israel." - The New York Times

Can A New Graphic Novel Of Watership Down Actually Not Traumatize Children?

The 1978 movie "was rated G but famously scared a lot of the unsuspecting kids who saw it. In fact, just in this past year, it was re-classified as PG." - NPR

Best Bookstore Day Ever?

Sir Patrick Stewart saw copies of his book in a window and just ... dropped in and signed some. The bookseller stayed calm ... externally. - BBC

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