WEATHER ALERT
Jodi Picoult's 'Nineteen Minutes' tops PEN America of books banned in schools
Read full article: Jodi Picoult's 'Nineteen Minutes' tops PEN America of books banned in schoolsJodi Picoult's “Nineteen Minutes” has topped a list compiled by PEN America of the books most often pulled from school shelves.
Utah bans 13 books at schools, including popular “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series, under new law
Read full article: Utah bans 13 books at schools, including popular “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series, under new lawThirteen popular books have been banned from all public schools in Utah in the first wave of bans expected under a new law that prohibits books when at least three of the state’s 41 school district boards claim they contain pornographic or indecent material.
James Patterson, Margaret Atwood among thousands of writers urging AI companies to honor copyrights
Read full article: James Patterson, Margaret Atwood among thousands of writers urging AI companies to honor copyrightsJames Patterson, Suzanne Collins and Margaret Atwood are among thousands of writers endorsing an open letter from the Authors Guild urging AI companies to obtain permission before incorporating copyrighted work into their technologies.
Late British novelist Martin Amis knighted by King Charles in his first birthday honors list
Read full article: Late British novelist Martin Amis knighted by King Charles in his first birthday honors listMartin Amis, one of the most consequential British authors of his generation and who died last month, has been posthumously knighted by King Charles III in his first birthday honors list, which were unveiled late Friday.
Con artist pleads guilty in phishing plot that duped authors
Read full article: Con artist pleads guilty in phishing plot that duped authorsA yearslong saga that ensnared the publishing world has culminated in a New York courtroom where a con artist has pleaded guilty to a plot defrauding scores of authors by duping them into handing over hundreds of unpublished manuscripts.
Russia bans 100 Canadians including Atwood, Jim Carrey
Read full article: Russia bans 100 Canadians including Atwood, Jim CarreyRussia’s Foreign Ministry has announced that 100 Canadians have been added to the list of people banned from entering the country in response to sanctions against Russia by Canada.
New this week: 'The Handmaid’s Tale' and 'Goodnight Mommy'
Read full article: New this week: 'The Handmaid’s Tale' and 'Goodnight Mommy'This week’s new entertainment releases include albums from Little Big Town and Marcus Mumford, “The Handmaid’s Tale” returns with high stakes for the future of Gilead, and twin brothers go to their mother’s house for a stay but find something is off about her in the film “Goodnight Mommy.”.
Greta Thunberg aims to drive change with ‘The Climate Book’
Read full article: Greta Thunberg aims to drive change with ‘The Climate Book’Climate activist Greta Thunberg has compiled a handbook for tackling the world’s interconnected environmental crises, with contributions from leading scientists and writers.
Zadie Smith to receive PEN America literary service award
Read full article: Zadie Smith to receive PEN America literary service awardAuthor Zadie Smith is this year’s winner of the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award, an honor previously given to Toni Morrison, Stephen Sondheim and Margaret Atwood among others.
Booker winner Damon Galgut laments South Africa's gloom
Read full article: Booker winner Damon Galgut laments South Africa's gloomSouth African author Damon Galgut won the Booker Prize for fiction on Nov. 3 for his novel “The Promise,” the story of a white South African family in decline in the years before and after the end of the racist apartheid system.
Post Hill Press goes on with book by officer in Taylor raid
Read full article: Post Hill Press goes on with book by officer in Taylor raidThe publisher of memoir by a Louisville police officer who fired at Breonna Taylor after being shot during the deadly raid on Taylor’s apartment says it will release the book even though its distributor, Simon & Schuster, announced it would “not be involved.”.
Birds as revelations: Atwood writes foreword for Gibson book
Read full article: Birds as revelations: Atwood writes foreword for Gibson bookThis cover image released by Doubleday shows The Bedside Book of Birds: An Avian Miscellany, an illustrated compilation of folktales, poems, fiction and nonfiction by Graeme Gibson. “The Bedside Book of Birds: An Avian Miscellany," an illustrated compilation of folktales, poems, fiction and nonfiction that Gibson had assembled on his own, was originally published in 2005. Nothing could be more magnificent.”“The Bedside Book of Birds” is divided into nine sections — “habitats,” Gibson called them — that center on such themes as birds as omens, as revelations, avengers and mysteries. The Cold War had ended, the Berlin Wall had come down in 1989 and people were saying things like ‘the end of history.’ That was wrong, wrong, wrong,” Atwood said. They're very smart, and they have very long memories.”In his book, Gibson also describes an unexpected bond with a parrot named Harold Wilson.
Atwood, Grisham among contributors to pandemic novel
Read full article: Atwood, Grisham among contributors to pandemic novelAtwood and Grisham are among several authors participating in a novel about the pandemic. The Authors Guild Foundation announced Thursday that it had reached a deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media to publish Fourteen Days: An Unauthorized Gathering." (AP Photo)NEW YORK – One of the first novels about the pandemic will be a collaborative effort, with Margaret Atwood, John Grisham and Celeste Ng among the writers. Novelist and Authors Guild President Douglas Preston came up with the idea as a way to raise money for the foundation. Atwood is editing “Fourteen Days” and helped recruit a wide range of contributors, including Dave Eggers, Ishmael Reed, Monique Truong, Hampton Sides, Mary Pope Osborne and Emma Donoghue.
Q&A: Isabel Allende on feminism, TV series, love in pandemic
Read full article: Q&A: Isabel Allende on feminism, TV series, love in pandemicNEW YORK – Isabel Allende is not only the world’s most widely read Spanish-language author but also a self-declared and outspoken feminist. She also reflects on the #MeToo movement, the recent social unrest in Chile and the global pandemic. AdDuring the interview, Allende recalled her beginnings as a feminist and also spoke about her experience as a 78-year-old “newlywed” in confinement. Allende: The year of the pandemic has had everything paralyzed, but things continue to move forward. AdAllende: Well, because what a writer needs is time, silence and solitude, and the pandemic has given me that.
As 'Handmaid's Tale' returns, creator sees no end in sight
Read full article: As 'Handmaid's Tale' returns, creator sees no end in sightFILE - In this Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019, file photo, Elisabeth Moss attends the "The Handmaid's Tale" season three finale red carpet at the Regency Village Theatre, in Los Angeles. The drama series fourth season begins April 28, 2021, and will include 10 episodes. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)LOS ANGELES – As “The Handmaid’s Tale” returns in April for season four, its creator is reluctant to predict when the dystopian drama will be ready for its final act. “Every time I come upon a season, I don’t have any idea what we’re going to do,” said Bruce Miller. “The Handmaid's Tale” is already renewed for another season, but the 10-episode arc that begins April 28 doesn’t hold back on playing out story lines, Miller said.
Fauci wins $1 million Israeli prize for 'defending science'
Read full article: Fauci wins $1 million Israeli prize for 'defending science'Fauci won a $1 million award from the Israeli Dan David Foundation for courageously defending science during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)TEL AVIV – Dr. Anthony Fauci has won the $1 million Dan David Prize for “defending science” and advocating for vaccines now being administered worldwide to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The Israel-based Dan David Foundation on Monday named President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser as the winner of one of three prizes. AdBiden's election, Fauci said, was “liberating.”The Dan David Prize, established in 2000, gives $1 million awards in three categories each year for contributions addressing the past, present and future. Fauci won the prize for achievement in the “present,” in the field of public health, the foundation said.
Event organizer drops BookExpo, annual publishing convention
Read full article: Event organizer drops BookExpo, annual publishing conventionThe annual publishing convention and trade show, a decades-old tradition, may be coming to an end. ReedPop, which has managed BookExpo for a quarter century, announced Tuesday that it was dropping the event, along with the fan-based BookCon. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)NEW YORK – The annual publishing convention and trade show known as BookExpo, a decades-old tradition where guest speakers have ranged from Bill Clinton to Margaret Atwood, may be coming to an end. “Among the many traditions we greatly missed this year was having an industry event that brings together booksellers, authors and publishers," he said. "ABA is exploring new ways to bring booksellers, publishers, and authors together in the future.
'Shuggie Bain' writer Douglas Stuart wins Booker Prize
Read full article: 'Shuggie Bain' writer Douglas Stuart wins Booker PrizeLONDON – Scottish writer Douglas Stuart won the Booker Prize for fiction Thursday for “Shuggie Bain,” the story of a boy’s turbulent coming of age in hardscrabble 1980s Glasgow. Stuart, 44, won the prestigious 50,000 pound ($66,000) award for his first published novel, the product of a decade of work. Stuart dedicated the book to own mother, who died when he was 16. Though there have been many British winners of the Booker Prize, most of them English, Stuart is the first Scottish victor since James Kelman took the 1994 prize with “How Late it Was, How Late” — a book Stuart has called an inspiration. Mantel won the Booker for both its predecessors, “Wolf Hall” and “Bring up the Bodies,” and had been widely tipped for the hat trick.
American poet Louise Glück wins Nobel Prize in Literature
Read full article: American poet Louise Glück wins Nobel Prize in LiteratureAmerican poet Louise Gluck speaks with the media, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020, outside her home in Cambridge, Mass. Gluck, a professor of English at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., won the 2020 Nobel Prize for literature "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal." (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)STOCKHOLM – Louise Glück, an American poet long revered for the power, inventiveness and concision of her work and for her generosity to younger writers, has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. “As one of our most celebrated American poets, we are thrilled that Louise Glück has received this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature," Michael Jacobs, chairman of the Academy of American Poets, said in a statement. In 2018, the award was postponed after sex abuse allegations rocked the Swedish Academy, which names the Nobel literature committee, and sparked a mass exodus of members.
Alexie, Pilkey books among most 'challenged' of past decade
Read full article: Alexie, Pilkey books among most 'challenged' of past decadeFILE - In this Oct. 10, 2016 file photo, author and filmmaker Sherman Alexie appears at a celebration of Indigenous Peoples' Day at Seattle's City Hall. Alexie is included in a list of authors who wrote books that were among the 100 most subjected to censorship efforts over the past decade, as compiled by the American Library Association. All wrote books that were among the 100 most subjected to censorship efforts over the past decade, as compiled by the American Library Association. The association does not formally count the number of times books are actually removed from a library shelf or from a school reading list. “There are actually two lines of objections to the Anne Frank diary,” Caldwell-Stone says.
Margaret Atwood honored with Dayton Literary Peace Prize
Read full article: Margaret Atwood honored with Dayton Literary Peace PrizeThe Canadian writer and teacher has earned the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, officials of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize officials announced Monday. The award is named for the late U.S. diplomat who brokered the 1995 Bosnian peace accords reached in the Ohio city. Some readers of “The Handmaid's Tale” saw in the leaders of authoritarian Gilead similarities to the rise of Republican Donald Trump to president in the election of 2016. Sharon Rab, the founder and chairwoman of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation, praised Atwood for popular success with writing that also educates people about pressing social justice and environmental issues. “The Testaments,” her 2019 sequel to “The Handmaid's Tale,” quickly joined her bestsellers.