Category: words

“The US’s most prestigious awards for romance writing, the Ritas, have been cancelled after a host of judges and entrants pulled out over an ongoing racism row involving the industry’s largest trade group, the Romance Writers of America.” – The Guardian

At least from small-press publishers, we’re getting more work that looks at, not so much how do we survive the apocalypse as how do we live with nature? How do we live in this world? – Washington Post

“There are more resonances between programming and poetry than you might think. Computer science is an art form of words and punctuation, thoughtfully placed and goal-oriented, even if not necessarily deployed to evoke surprise or longing. Laid out on a page, every program uses indentations, stanzas, and a distinctive visual hierarchy to convey meaning. In the best cases, a close-reader of code will be rewarded with a sense of awe for the way ideas have been captured in words.” – The New Yorker

“This genre is called solarpunk. It attempts to radically reimagine the future, with technological solutions to environmental problems — think green cities, solar planes, recycle artists, biodegradable fashion wear. It’s a very global movement and it’s, well, hopeful!” – The Washington Post

After Nipsey Hussle was killed on an L.A. street in front of his shop last March, fans wanted to figure out how to honor him. Shop at his store? Paint his face as murals on walls? Yes, and start book clubs around the country, founded to read Nipsey’s favorite books. “A 31-year-old fan from Wisconsin created a meme listing all of the books that Hussle had mentioned in interviews, songs and motivational messages that she had been compiling for years. It includes self-help bestsellers, cult classics and little-known books by black authors.” – Los Angeles Times

Vigdis Hjorth’s novel, in which a woman in her 50s reveals to her family that her father sexually abused her as a child, has touched off a debate in Norway – and fury in her own family. “Hjorth’s sister, Helga, a human rights lawyer, responded to the book by writing a novel of her own, Fri Vilje (Free Will), in which a character suffers the trauma of living with the public fallout from a narcissistic sibling’s ‘dishonest’ autobiographical novel.” – The Observer (UK)

Well, one writer: Rachel Syme, who, every once in a while, calls herself the Perfume Genie – and people on Twitter ask her for recommendations. She thinks, “When people are saying, I want to smell like this, they’re actually thinking, I want to appear like this to myself, which is a really interesting prompt because I think a lot of people are saying, oh, I want everybody to think I’m glamorous or take me seriously – but people aren’t going to know that through your perfume.” – NPR

The RWA is still embroiled in an ongoing and, it seems, widening scandal about its leadership. Karen Grigsby Bates says of the organization for the most lucrative sector of publishing: “If they don’t adjust to change and format themselves so that the people that they want to reach, that they need to reach feel included and welcome, they will find that they have a much smaller organization, if they have an organization at all.” – NPR

Actually, no one truly knows how to do it. “It’s also a real evaluative mystery. How do you know good writing that, as a moviegoer, you can’t see and, as Academy voters, you’re not obligated to read?” – The New York Times