“The 29-year-old Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld has become the youngest author ever to win the International Booker prize, taking the award for their ‘visceral and virtuosic’ debut novel, The Discomfort of Evening. … The £50,000 award for the best fiction translated into English … will be split equally with their translator, Michele Hutchison.” – The Guardian
Category: words
How 70,000 Chinese Characters Were Made To Fit On A Western Computer Keyboard
The world power that is 21st-century China likely wouldn’t exist as we know it if an ingenious and tenacious computer programmer named Wang Yongmin hadn’t solved that very basic, very complicated problem. Here’s a deep dive into how he did it. (audio plus transcript) – Radiolab
Major Indian Publisher Withdraws Book About 2020 Riots In Delhi
“The book, titled Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story [and now dropped by Bloomsbury India], claims that the riots were the result of a conspiracy by Muslim jihadists and so-called ‘urban naxals’, a derogatory term used to describe left-wing activists, who had a role to play in the riots. The claim contravenes reports by organisations such as Amnesty International and the Delhi Minorities Commission that Muslims bore the brunt of the violence.” – The Guardian
Kuwait Changes Its Book Censorship Law
With the amendment now in place, book importers and international publishers have to provide only book titles and author lists to the Ministry of Information, with the understanding that they bear legal responsibility if a book’s subject matter contravenes Kuwaiti law. Legal action against a particular book will now only be triggered by an official complaint from the public. – The National (UAE)
During The Pandemic, Small Local Bookstores Have Gotten More Love Than They Can Handle (And Customers Don’t Love That)
“As the novel coronavirus takes its toll on businesses all over the world, many well-meaning consumers have flocked to local community bookstores. However, increased demand on these small shops has put a strain on business owners. Even worse, some have received backlash from impatient and disgruntled customers for slow shipping or sold out inventories.” – The Washington Post
The Ongoing Reckoning In The Publishing World
Publishing has rather a lot to do to catch up in the diversity, equity, and inclusion fronts. Lisa Lucas, the outgoing director of the National Book Foundation, who is Black, says, “What do you do with data that tells us we’re not diverse enough for the year 2020? We make the culture — we make books. If we are serving a whole country, then we need people within our publishing houses who reflect what our country looks like.” – GEN
Can Reading Fight Racism?
The pandemic changed some things, and then came the murder of George Floyd – and the largest civil rights movement in U.S. history. “Anti-racist manuals have been cleaned out from virtual bookstore shelves and pushed to the top of bestseller lists. And often, these buyers don’t want to read alone. Enter the anti-racist book club.” – BuzzFeed
What It’s Like For A Woman Writer Try To Ghost Write A Virulent Misogynist’s Memoir
Heidi Pitlor: “Ghostwriting is a form of acting, method acting really, as well as improvisation. You must become your subject, whether they are a Kennedy, a congresswoman, or a guy who espouses anarcho-primitivism and might frequent urbandictionary.com.” – LitHub
Minnesota Finally Recognizes A Native Author With Its State Literary Award
And what an author – Marcie Rendon, an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation, is an “award-winning poet, playwright, author of children’s books, short stories and the popular Cash Blackbear mystery series.” – St. Paul Pioneer Press
Try A Summer Getaway With Italo Calvino
Unless you already live in Venice, in which case, sorry, you’ll have to read something other than Invisible Cities. – The Economist