Parents outside of Kansas City have been protesting Cass County Public Library Board of Trustees meetings for two months in the hopes of banning a children’s book about puberty from the library, KKTV reported yesterday. One protestor held a sign Read more >
Here is some grim news: conservative freedom fighter Mark Levin’s latest book, American Marxism, which came out in July, has surpassed one million copies sold. No, American Marxism isn’t an SDA how-to, it’s a fearmongering screed that “seeks to rally Read more >
I keep hearing that “stories make us human.” Now, a Copenhagen-based project has skipped the middleman; at Ronni Abergel’s “Human Library,” visitors can “check out” a person to hear their life story. At the Human Library, visitors can read one Read more >
Struggling to read more but just can’t find the time? Well, Brooklyn’s Center for Fiction may have the solution (for free!). The staff at the not-for-profit is curating short stories for NYC’s first Short Story Dispenser, which is scheduled to Read more >
Perhaps you’re familiar with personalized children’s books: children’s books made-to-order by small presses, where parents can customize the protagonist of each book to have their child’s name, gender, age and skin tone. (As a child a distant relative gifted me Read more >
Another day, another Extended Universe. Netflix announced today that it had acquired the Roald Dahl Story Company and with it, the author’s entire catalogue. Which means, of course, that we’re entering a golden(?) age of free-wheeling adaptations of some of Read more >
Last November, we learned architect Kengo Kuma was designing a public library at Tokyo’s Waseda University, where Haruki Murakami was an undergraduate drama major, to house the author’s personal archive and his tens of thousands of vinyl records. Now, it’s Read more >
Today, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation announced the winners of its 2021 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. The prize, which awards a $10,000 honorarium to both a fiction and a non-fiction winner, as well as $5,000 each to runners-up, aims Read more >
At long last! We now have a full-length trailer for actor and director Rebecca Hall’s cinematic adaptation of Passing. The film, based on Nella Larsen’s 1929 novella of the same name, centers on two Black women, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) Read more >
Today is the 76th birthday of Kay Ryan, the Pulitzer-winning former U.S. poet laureate known for her tight, winding work. Throughout her career, Ryan has been viewed as an outsider poet: she has no MFA, and for that matter, has Read more >
After protests from students, parents, and teachers and increasing national attention, Pennsylvania’s Central York School District has reversed its November 2020 ban on a list of resources written by authors of color. On Monday evening, the school board voted unanimously Read more >
Haruki Murakami is a collector: of vinyl records, T-shirts, and short stories (ha ha ha). He’s donated his collection of over 10,000 vinyl records to Waseda University, but keeps his T-shirts in cardboard boxes at his home. According to Murakami, Read more >
Scottish play stans hide your fires and unleash your black and deep desires, because the first teaser trailer for Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth (starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand) has arrived. The trailer is only about 20 seconds Read more >
As long as there is a thing loosely considered “book publishing” there will be something like the phenomenon of celebrity imprints. It’s impossible to say how hands-on any given famous person is when it comes to what’s published in their Read more >
Today, the National Book Foundation announced its 5 Under 35 honorees: five fiction writers under the age of 35 “whose debut work promises to leave a lasting impression on the literary landscape.” As always, each honoree was selected by a Read more >
The air is crisp, the sky is blue, and the press cycle is fresh. That’s right! At long last, we’ve entered my favorite season of all: Franzen season. This morning, WSJ Magazine published a profile of Jonathan Franzen in advance of Read more >
Nothing like new books to shake up that old TBR pile. * Richard Powers, Bewilderment (W. W. Norton) “Impressively precise in its scientific conjectures, Bewilderment is no less rich or wise in its emotionality. Moreover, science fiction is not just Read more >
You might think you love Dostoevsky, but do you love him more than Dario Gambarin does? To commemorate the writer’s 200th birthday (which is technically not until November 11th), the Italian land artist carved his likeness in 25,000 meters of Read more >
On Sunday night, I May Destroy You showrunner Michaela Coel won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. In the context of yet another melanin-deficient awards show that had people tweeting #EmmysSoWhite, it was Read more >
“The glossies really aren’t buying very edgy, challenging short fiction these days,” Chuck Palahniuk says. “That type of fiction doesn’t really have a market anymore.” Though he’s not taking the helm of a legacy publication, the Fight Club author hopes Read more >
