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News, Notes, Talk

The new UK arm of Bookshop.org raised £100k for independent bookstores in nine days.

As you may know, Bookshop.org, an alternative to Amazon that shares proceeds of every sale it makes with independent booksellers, recently launched in the UK (missing the obvious opportunity of rebranding itself “Bookshoppe”). And when I say recently, I mean Read more >

By Walker Caplan

PEN America has announced the inaugural winners of its prison writing program award.

The PEN America/L’Engle-Rahman Prize for Mentorship honors four mentor/mentee pairs in PEN America’s prison writing mentorship program, which links established writers with those currently incarcerated. The Award is named after the late acclaimed author Madeleine L’Engle and her 10-year written friendship with Read more >

By Rasheeda Saka

35% of the world is reading more during the pandemic. Thanks, pandemic?

Wow, yet another upside of quarantine—according to thinkpieces everywhere, they just keep coming! Research compiled by writing and proofreading service Global English Editing shows that 35% of people in the world have read more books than usual since COVID began. Read more >

By Walker Caplan

On Dostoevsky’s 199th birthday, here's Nabokov insulting him. A lot.

We’re celebrating Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 199th birthday by looking at him through the lens of Vladimir Nabokov, who insulted Dostoevsky every chance he could. Nabokov was a famously harsh critic, calling Hemingway “hopelessly juvenile” and Ezra Pound’s work “pretentious nonsense”—but some Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Here are the winners of the 2020 Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

The Dayton Literary Peace Prize, first awarded in 2006, honors an author and recognizes a work of fiction and nonfiction that promotes peace, social justice, and global understanding. The winner from each category receives a cash prize of $10,000. Previous Read more >

By Rasheeda Saka

For his birthday this year, Kurt Vonnegut gets a movie deal.

Happy 98th birthday, Kurt Vonnegut—and congratulations! IFC Films has acquired the North American rights to the documentary Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time, with plans to release the film in the summer of 2021. Unstuck in Time follows the celebrated, power-critiquing, Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Is today actually Isaac Bashevis Singer's birthday?

Feature photo by Dan Hadani, used with permission of The Singer Literary Trust. Singer often feels like a familiar entity—yet he never ceases to surprise. As discussed in this companion essay, he is known as a storyteller and memoirist, but Read more >

By David Stromberg

The freelance writing life? Making tiny gourmet meals for a chipmunk, apparently.

Aside from the fear and anxiety and loneliness of the pandemic many people have picked up diversionary non-digital habits over the last eight months: baking, gardening, woodworking, and, of course, constructing elaborate miniature gourmet meals for the local chipmunk. Since Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Oprah and Brad Pitt are adapting Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Water Dancer.

It was announced earlier today that MGM is teaming with Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films, and director Kamilah Forbes on a film adaptation of National Book Award-winner Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2019 bestselling novel, The Water Dancer. Coates’ Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Here's some of the best online quarantine writing from the last few months.

As the possibility of a vaccine becomes more real and we start to ask what art will look like after COVID, it’s worth looking back on not just all the bad quarantine writing but all the thoughtful, immediate quarantine writing as Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Please don't give Trump a $100M book deal.

In the last four years, there have been so many Trump books. Many have been massive bestsellers. Many have dominated the headlines, steered the conversation for days. So can you really blame any publishing house for jumping at the chance Read more >

By Emily Temple

21 new books to buy from your local indie today.

You know what they say: November is the new December! When’s the best time to support your local bookstore and get holiday gifts? Well, there’s no time like the present. (Get it?) (I’m sorry.) (But seriously, support your favorite indie and Read more >

By Katie Yee

Post-election, Kamala Harris’s books are more popular than ever.

Kamala Harris-related books have seen a sharp increase in popularity post-Biden/Harris presidential win. On Sunday, a whopping four books on Amazon’s Top 10 bestsellers list were either about or penned by the vice president-elect. The books in question: Harris’s memoir Read more >

By Walker Caplan

GOOP is getting into publishing.

Hey, you! Yes, you, Big Little Lies tertiary character. You, person who put “Hermès Dreamcatcher” on your wedding registry. You, mostly harmless but debilitatingly-cosseted pigeon. Incinerate your detoxifying Charcoal Body Scrub Towel, peel off your Body Vibes Smart Stickers, melt Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Souvankham Thammavongsa has won the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

The Scotiabank Giller Prize, founded in 1994, recognizes the best Canadian fiction of the year. With a cash prize of $100,000, the Award is one of the largest Canadian literary prizes. Previous winners include Esi Edugyan, Elizabeth Hay, and Sean Michaels. Read more >

By Rasheeda Saka

Powell’s Books has released a book-scented fragrance for book lovers everywhere.

Looking for a fragrance that conjures the smell of ancient scrolls and aged books? Look no further for your strangely specific wish: Powell’s Books is selling it. The fragrance, called “Powell’s by Powell’s,” promises to “deliver the wearer to a place Read more >

By Walker Caplan