- Jared Bland, known for getting and leaving important positions in Canadian culture, is out at M&S, but this time for a health reason, while former literary agent Stephanie Sinclair is in as publisher, which makes me wonder two things: 1) what took so long? and 2) what’s going to happen to that list of great writers (with a significant Indigenous component) Sinclair was repping? Here’s hoping they are well cared for;
- Changes are also afoot at S&S in the US;
- Why inappropriate books are the best kind of books;
- Orwell Prizes winners;
- PRH does the good work of hiring billboards in Texas and Florida advertising their Queer authors;
- Caine Prize for a short story goes to Kenyan writer Idza Luhumyo;
- How to run a literary festival;
- Can libraries help you earn out your advance?;
- Today in Floof: the personal bookplates of 18 famous writers… man, I loved bookplates as a kid…they were so….archaic;
- Ninja pal and stellar poet Ada Limón is the new US Poet Laureate;
- Beatts wonders if we should be cautiously optimistic about indy books;
- Toronto Book Award long lists;
- Poor, poor parents… Calliou is looking to make a digital comeback;
- Is the book sales boom over?;
- Book folk like Europe’s Digital Markets Act;
- Where the Crawdads Sing author wanted for questioning in murder;
- BBC offers its best-of-the-year-so-far list;
- How does a book become valuable? (I once found a 50 in one…);
- Speaking of things found inside books… an archive;
- The Atlantic is now completely digitally archived for your browsing;
I think many people have a manuscript in them, but only a small fraction of those have a book worth publishing. As far as I’m concerned, everyone should learn to write, even if that skill is only applied to their reading. I appreciate every machine in my house more once I’ve taken it apart and put it back together. Writing should be used the same way. But that doesn’t mean your writing needs to be published. The Guardian looks into things.
It’s hard to think of any other art form so consistently assumed to have absolutely no bar to entry.
You rarely see comedians or television presenters presuming to try their hand at being a concert pianist. And yet producing a novel is now such a well-established rung on the light entertainment career ladder that these books are in danger of becoming the rhododendrons of the publishing ecosystem: not necessarily unappealing, in their own gaudy way, but in danger of choking off every other variety.
A dangerous thing to do. I might learn something about where the world is. Read on at your own risk.
- Jan Zwicky and Margie Wolfe named to Order of Canada;
- Berton House is relaunching its residency program;
- Seth gets knighted;
- Writers around the world respond to the disgusting and oppressive Roe v Wade overturning;
- Jesmyn Ward wins Library of Congress Prize for Fiction;
- Macmillan got hacked? Who’d want to hack Macmillan?;
- S&S pres Jonathan Karp (pictured here in Brent Spiner cosplay) offers a couple conflict resolution books for free to heal a divided nation;
- “Book detective?” How come no one mentioned this on career day?;
- Only takes one wingnut now to get a Ru Paul book removed;
- If you’ve been waiting for another famous literary author to delve into the SFF realm, Salman Rushdie has some good news for you;
- Irish women authors get reissue from Arlen House;
- UK gets new Children’s Laureate in Joseph Coelho;
- Locus Award winners;
- On the “troubling legacy of Lolita“, 60 years later;
- IPA critical of UAE’s anti-LGBTQ+ lobby on Amazon;
- Today in Floof: A “definitive ranking” of the sexiest book covers;
- 26 Canadian books to read for Pride Month — a list full of ‘Ninja pals;
- This anthology of Indigenous Slam poets looks interesting;
- Tolu Oloruntoba makes it a Double-Double, winning both the Governor General’s prize (I was a jury member and can tell you it’s a great book) and the Griffin Prize…. go out and get it, if you haven’t;
- Ruth Ozeki wins Women’s Prize for Fiction;
- Aussie John Hughes — influenced by the greats or plagiarist?;
- Lit world celebrates 100 years of people not finishing Ulysses;
- Crush-worthy critic and academic Merve Emre celebrates Dalloway Day;
- In praise of Nancy Drew — mystery women who save themselves;
- On how smart phones are affecting mystery novels;
- A The Hunger Games prequel (The Peckish Amusements) is coming;
- Today in Floof: real lit-types get their burns from Nabokov;
- Today in Floof 2: there’s a Tinder-like app for book lovers — Booky Call;
- June is also Indigenous History Month and CBC has some book recs;
- Black women writers celebrate Toni Morrison at Luminato;
- Oh, ftr, Beattie’s site is now subscription – I have subscribed, you should too;
- Lambda Awards announced;
- Speaking of LGBTQ2+: what’s it like to have everyone banning everything you do while they fight for their “rights” to be bigots on social media?;
- 100 Queer poems in landmark anthology;
- Do you think ghostwriting for others would change how you write your own fiction?;
- Amazon is helping to publish and sell fascists;
- What happens when your friend pushes a book into your hands and calls it a life-changing experience, but as you read, you realize you hate it…?;
- If you ever thought Sun Tzu’s The Art of War needs animated… well….;
Poetry types have one tenth of their attention glued on the internet today to hear who all is going to win the Griffin Prizes. (The other 9/10ths are split between their day jobs and checking Twitter for people sub-tweeting them.) Watch here:
Look, I like you all, but it’s sunny out.
- Griffin Prize announcement is on Wednesday… here the finalists chat about poetry in a major newspaper, as the powers are wont to let happen once a year (my money is on Oloruntoba, but my heart is with Howard);
- Thomas Raddall Award goes to Ninja-pal Michelle Butler Hallett;
- BC man owns up and returns library book 48 years late;
- That Shakespearean Rag gets first makeover since… ever;
- The Internet Archive v Publishers court case is nearing an end as parties seek summary judgement;
- Flame retardant copy of The Handmaid’s Tale goes for $130k;
- Speaking of older white authors who have slid into conservative views;
- Banned book fairs are sweeping the nation;
- Spotify is trying to wedge itself into the audio book market so it can assuage musicians by also paying authors fractions of cents;
- Is something in the wings to replace Book Expo?;
- There’s been a meltdown in the Washington Post newsroom;
- Hey, adults trying to make a living from writing: Oprah picks teen;
- Kurt Vonnegut library does what Kurt Vonnegut would have done in a time dedicated to censorship and book banning: donates Vonnegut books to Florida;
- But do characters in comic books ever really die?;
An article in Quartz leads to this piece at Gawker on how reference letters have a basis in discrimination, particularly against Jews, and should be abolished as gatekeeping entrance requirements to academic establishments, residences, and awards. You know, I have to say I agree. Pr at least, I’d be happy to just not have to write them for any reason. They’re like book reviews for me. I agonize over them. I’ve done about five in the last year and they’re an enormous amount of work. I mean, I’ll do it because they’re my students and colleagues, etc., but being a non-academic poet in a world dominated by academics, there’s a part of me that goes, listen… Ask someone who has a cushy tenure track position. This is actually part of their job they get paid for. Of course, I never would. They’re good people, and I’m honoured to be thought of at all, as I age into obscurity. But besides any gatekeeping work they do, they also keep both the referee and the referred super distracted with what amounts to pointless busy work.
Reference letters, in addition to just being a pain in the ass, have an anti-Semitic origin story in the U.S. “In the 1920s, the heads of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton decided they were admitting too many Jewish students,” writes Sarah Todd in a recent article for Quartz, citing Jerome Karabel’s history of Ivy League admissions, The Chosen. “Until that point, acceptances had been determined largely by students’ scores on entrance exams, giving administrators little control over who made the cut.” The letters were instituted as a subjective criterion, a way to say, well, yes, this Jewish student over here has higher test scores, but this non-Jewish student has a glowing recommendation from an alum, so.
That the practice has endured at the undergraduate level is bad enough; that it has been adopted by most higher-level literary institutions in the country, all of whom claim diversity as a central aim, is revolting. The letters were not only born of discrimination, but carry it forward. For a writer to know someone they can ask for a reference, especially one that might move the needle, means they have already been admitted to an exclusive institution, or more likely, several. Those who haven’t — marginalized people, people who cannot afford to attend a fancy university, people with no generational connections, people who do not live in literary New York City — are out of luck.
- Leacock Medal for Humour finalists;
- PEI bookstore owner gifted first edition Anne book;
- Kindle pulls up stakes in China;
- Wallace Stegner on “using” other people’s language… (ie, plagiarism);
- Yeah, but have you lived in any of those cities? It’s impossible to concentrate! City dwellers reading less than non-city dwellers;
- Franz Kafka’s drawings are… well… Kafkaesque;
- Prison bans foreign language dictionaries… [insert eyeroll emoji here];
- Happy Pride month! Are these the 100 most influential Queer books?;
- Floofesque: Feel good books with guaranteed happy endings;