More than 31,000 people have signed a petition calling on Oxford University Press to change the Oxford Dictionaries’ definition of “woman,” which includes “bitch” as a synonym and lists examples of usage that show men denigrating women. The campaign, created Read more >
The PEN/Faulkner Award celebrates the best published works of fiction by American citizens. It is the largest peer-juried award in the country, with three writers being selected by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to act as jurors. Patricia Engel, Ru Freeman, and Read more >
If you’ve been anywhere near Literary Twitter™ in the last 48 hours, I don’t have to tell you that there has been some major AWP anxiety going down. But yesterday, after many mixed messages and rumors to the contrary, AWP Read more >
We’re keeping track of the book fairs and other events that have been canceled or rescheduled as coronavirus spreads around the globe. Check back here for updates. BookExpo, UnBound and BookCon (New York, New York, May 27-31): Postponed to July Read more >
Yes, I’m talking about The Magicians. Today, Syfy announced that the current season, the fifth for the adaptation of Lev Grossman’s trilogy, would be the show’s last. You may have noticed, if you’re a frequent reader of this site, that Read more >
At a ceremony last night, held at The Town Hall in New York City and hosted by Seth Meyers, PEN America announced the winners of its 2020 literary awards. (You can watch the full video here.) Since 1963, the PEN Read more >
The world is on the brink of pandemic, but the North Korean regime—which unsurprisingly claims that the country has seen no cases of COVID-19—is focusing on literature. Kim Yo Jong, who is Kim Jong Un’s sister and “widely considered the Read more >
Every week, the TBR pile grows a little bit more. It’s getting precarious. It’s taking up your whole nightstand. It’s threatening to crush you in your sleep. Well, what are you waiting for? Get cracking. What are you reading this Read more >
Across the pond in foggy London town the longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction has just been announced. This year’s list of nominees is particularly star-studded, and includes such luminaries as Edna O’Brien, Jenny Offil, Bernardine Evaristo, Jacqueline Woodson, and Read more >
In a tweet by executive director Diane Zinna, AWP has announced that despite concerns over the coronavirus—and a recently declared public health emergency in San Antonio—the conference will continue. If you’d been hanging out on literary Twitter for the past Read more >
Here’s an odd and unpleasant piece of news: with today’s announcement that Woody Allen’s long-rumored memoir is no longer just a rumor, and will in fact be hitting shelves next month, Allen and his estranged son Ronan Farrow—who has dedicated much Read more >
We can’t stop telling stories about pandemics, even as we wait for one to hit us. As coronavirus spreads across the world, so have headlines about the ways that storytellers, from those in Babylonia to contemporary novelists and Hollywood, have Read more >
It’s true. Nestled inside Coole Park, a nature reserve deep in the heart of the western province of the Emerald Isle, is a giant Copper beach tree inscribed with the names of some of the most famous Irish writers of Read more >
On this sunny Friday afternoon, before heading to our weekend writing groups/brunches or whatever, let’s take a moment to think about writer-friends Arthur Conan Doyle and Grant Allen. There are few things more wonderful in this line of work than Read more >
People, please don’t misunderstand me: this is not an actual sex education reading list. If you have questions about that stuff, you’re better off looking elsewhere. I cannot help you. This is a brief list born out of my love Read more >
PEN America has announced highlights from the lineup for the PEN World Voices Festival 2020: These Truths. The festival will take place May 4-9 across New York City. Margaret Atwood, Roxane Gay and Jia Tolentino will speak with Rebecca Traister Read more >
Perhaps you have heard of #BookfaceFriday, or simply #Bookface, a meme particularly loved by librarians, in which, well, you replace your face (or another part of your body) with a book, creating a nifty and literary trompe l’oeil. (If not, Read more >
A new project from the Mille Lacs Band and Minnesota Historical Society Press will soon bring the stories of elders to the community with three Ojibwe-language books that speak to the endurance of language and Ojibwe autonomy. To create the Read more >
And do you remember that it happened on the NRA’s wonderfully, miserably failed TV network? Well, if you don’t remember these two high-points in American culture, you can read about them in the Loesch’s new memoir, Grace Canceled, which seeks Read more >
The McKittrick Hotel, already the home to the eerie, theatrical somnambulation Sleep No More, has offered one of its many empty, low-lit crannies to host a second production during this bleak mid-winter season: the West End’s long-running hit The Woman Read more >
