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News, Notes, Talk

Writers, take heart: K-Pop superstars are just like you!

There are many—nay, infinite—ways in which writers are nothing like K-Pop superstars… HOWEVER, maybe we can take some small solace from the fact that human megahit-machine Bang Chan (of Stray Kids and 3RACHA) runs into bouts of writers’ block just Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Here are the best reviewed books of the week.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s On Grief, Stacey Abrams’ While Justice Sleeps, Edmund de Waal’s Letters to Camondo, and Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Read more >

By Book Marks

Fun fact: Courtney Love read Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” for her Mickey Mouse Club audition.

Here’s something weird and wonderful from way back when: alt-rock icon, occasional indie movie actress, and Hole frontwoman Courtney Love, at the tender age of eleven, tried out for a role on the on the 1977 Mickey Mouse Club—the second Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

“I have walked through many lives”: Listen to Stanley Kunitz read his poem “The Layers.”

Today marks fifteen years since the death of Stanley Kunitz, tenth Poet Laureate of the United States and fiercely dedicated teacher. Kunitz once spoke of the importance of reading his work aloud: “I write my poems for the ear . Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Evelyn Waugh’s twelve-bedroom house—complete with party barn—is now for sale.

Somerset’s Combe Florey House, once the family home of Brideshead Revisited author Evelyn Waugh and his son Auberon, is finally for sale—and it’s pretty spectacular, looking onto parkland and water. The grounds include a twelve-bedroom home with red sandstone facades; Read more >

By Walker Caplan

This surreal seaside library will transport you into the clouds.

Because you can always use another gorgeous library to imagine yourself inside: MAD Architects has built a seaside library in Haikou, China that eschews blocky, familiar design in favor of flowing forms mimicking the clouds and sea that surround it. Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Here's a wild story about a publishing scam that includes Morgan Freeman and 9/11.

Ah, the month of May: the days are long, the weather is perfect for light jackets, and the trees are taking their revenge for climate change by blowing pollen directly into our sinuses. In short, summer is near. And lest Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Apparently the Brontës all died so early because they spent their lives drinking graveyard water.

It is a well known and oft-romanticized fact that the Brontë sisters—and the Brontë brother, for that matter—all died young, one after the other, leaving moody, moor-y masterpieces in their wake. Officially, they all suffered from tuberculosis, or complications thereof, Read more >

By Emily Temple

Raven Leilani has won the Dylan Thomas Prize.

Last evening in a virtual ceremony, Raven Leilani was awarded the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize—an annual £20,000 prize given to the best literary English-language work by an author aged 39 or under—for her debut novel Luster. With this win, Read more >

By Walker Caplan

John Lithgow on performing William Maxwell’s So Long, See You Tomorrow.

John Lithgow, beloved actor, author, Grammy-nominated vocalist, and Trump satirist-in-verse, recorded William Maxwell’s So Long, See You Tomorrow in December. (You can purchase tickets here.) He shared some first-person insight on his recording experience and his connection to Maxwell’s work. Read more >

By Walker Caplan

A new digital library in Rome lets commuters read unlimited e-books for free.

A good idea to steal: the city of Rome has created a free digital library that spans the entire city, available to users of ATAC, Rome’s public transportation. Passengers waiting at bus stops or subway stations will be able to Read more >

By Walker Caplan

A new fellowship will provide unrestricted $25,000 grants to Puerto Rican writers.

Exciting news: the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Flamboyan Foundation’s Flamboyan Arts Fund have founded the Letras Boricuas Fellowship, which will provide unrestricted grants of $25,000 to thirty Puerto Rican writers over the next two years (fifteen in 2021 Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Of course Andrew Yang's favorite New York book is The Catcher in the Rye.

Last week, Gothamist invited readers to choose their favorite New York book from a list curated by librarians at the New York Public Library. The books on the list were The Catcher in the Rye, Just Kids, The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Here are the winners of Publishing Triangle’s 33rd annual Triangle Awards.

The Publishing Triangle, the association of LGBTQ people in publishing, has named the winners of the 33rd annual Triangle Awards, honoring the best LGBTQ fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and trans literature published in 2020. In total, Publishing Triangle awarded $12000 to Read more >

By Walker Caplan

This legislator is trying to limit the "enormous economic and social power" of . . . fact-checkers.

As initially reported by the Detroit News, Michigan state representative Matt Maddock (R) introduced a bill on Tuesday that would require fact checkers to register with the state, insure themselves with million-dollar bonds, and be subject to daily thousand-dollar fines. Read more >

By Walker Caplan

The Stephen King cinematic universe will devour us all.

I’m not a hater, I swear. I loved The Shining, and The Outsider, and It, and Carrie, and Pet Semetary, and Thinner, and Apt Pupil—all of them ludicrous and tremendously entertaining adaptations. King’s febrile imagination lends itself well to lurid screen Read more >

By Dan Sheehan