ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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Booker Prize Shortlist: Only One UK Author Gets On

None of the six authors have been shortlisted for the prize before. - The Guardian

Why Two Big AI Companies Are Hiring Poets And Fiction Writers

"A string of job postings from high-profile training data companies, such as Scale AI and Appen, are recruiting poets, novelists, playwrights, or writers with a PhD or master’s degree. Dozens more seek general annotators with humanities degrees, or years of work experience in literary fields." - Rest of World

Independent Booksellers Have Started Using TikTok As A Marketing Platform

"Bookstore owners and staffers agreed that TikTok increases their visibility when they make a concerted effort to use it. … Though it's time-consuming to monitor and to apply tags and trending sounds strategically, those contacted for this article said sustained engagement is worthwhile." - Publishers Weekly

224-Year-Old Virginia Library In Danger Of Shutting Over Book-Banning Fight

The library was founded in 1799 and counts itself as the second oldest in the state. It is separate from county government even though it relies on $1 million annually from Warren County to supply 75% of its budget. - AP News

Grisham, Franzen, George R.R. Martin Lead A Third Lawsuit By Authors Against Open AI

"The Authors Guild — led by authors including George R.R. Martin, Jonathan Franzen and John Grisham — sued OpenAI, accusing the company of engaging 'in a systematic course of mass-scale copyright infringement.' … The legal action is at least the third over the company using copyrighted books to train its system." - The Hollywood Reporter

Library In Washington State Wins Lawsuit, Is Saved From Possible Closure Over Culture War Book Bans

"The Dayton library – which was on the verge of becoming the first library in the country to shutter over disputes about what books it offers – will remain open after a Columbia County court Wednesday barred an initiative to close the library from appearing on the November ballot." - Yahoo! (The Seattle Times)

The Books You Always Meant To Read (But Haven’t)

Librarians and teachers, self-professed fans of lengthy, complex tomes, and even bookstore owners have similar tales of woe. Some of the books on the list are precisely what one might expect. - Washington Post

Gloria Steinem Remembers The Debut Issue Of Ms. Magazine

"I didn’t know what the response would be, especially on newsstands, with no precedent or place for a women’s magazine that wasn’t about home, family, and children. The response was shocking. (The first issue) sold out in eight days. Soon, bags of mail began arriving in our offices." - Literary Hub

TikTok Stars Are The New Saviors Of The Cookbook Industry

"Several TikTok creators, many of them with little or no professional cooking experience, have gone from tinkering in their home kitchens to topping best-seller lists in a remarkably short time. In the process, they've shot a jolt of energy into a sagging cookbook market." - The New York Times

Hilary Mantel’s “Final Book” To Be Published Next Month

"A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing will feature four decades of Mantel's work across a range of subjects, from her health struggles as a young woman and her time living in Saudi Arabia to the themes that fed into novels, including revolutionary France and Tudor England." - The Guardian

The Right To Privacy? Is The American Government Spying On Library Readers?

"I was certain the FBI didn’t have some mysterious database of all U.S. libraries that could spit out the borrower record of any one user. Besides, why would the government care what people read? My skepticism, it turns out, was unfounded." - LitHub

I Come Not To Praise The Internet Novel

The internet, or more precisely, the smartphone, poses a problem for novels. If a contemporary novel wants to seem realistic, or true to life, it must incorporate the internet in some way, because most people spend their days immersed in it. - 3 Quarks Daily

The Private Equity Firm That Bought Simon & Schuster Is Giving Employees An Ownership Stake. A Head Of That Firm Explains Why.

Pete Stavros of KKR: "If you're managing teachers' pension money and you want to just raise everyone's salary, that's on the backs of teachers, which is not ethical, and it's not our money. So what can we do? Ownership is a way of trying to navigate to a win-win." - Yahoo! (Slate)

“Shadow Library” Or Piracy Site? Four Publishers Sue LibGen

"Cengage, Macmillan Learning, McGraw Hill and Pearson Education filed the suit against Library Genesis, also known as LibGen, in Manhattan federal court, citing 'extensive violations' of copyright law. LibGen operates a collection of different domains that allow users to search for and download pdf versions of books." - The Guardian

Amazon Will Limit Number Of Books Authors Can Upload To Combat AI Submissions

KDP said that, while it has not yet “seen a spike in our publishing numbers,” it is lowering the number of new titles users can update to the platform daily to three, “in order to help protect against abuse.” - Publishers Weekly

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