Category: words

Martin Puchner, Harvard comp lit professor and editor of The Norton Anthology of World Literature, writes about Rotwelsch — an amalgam of colloquial German, Yiddish, and Romani spoken for centuries by itinerant people in Central Europe and incomprehensible to outsiders — and about how he discovered that his grandfather, a historian named Karl Puchner, had worked with the Nazi regime to suppress Rotwelsch and keep the German language pure. – Literary Hub

“Humanities Tennessee [has] created something called Chapter 16: a part-digital, part-print publication that covers literature and literary life in the state by doing what almost any other outlet would — running reviews, profiles, interviews, and essays — but also by doing what almost no other outlet could afford to do: giving away its content for free, not only to readers but to any publication of any kind that wants to reproduce it.” – The New Yorker

Language changed so quickly in response to the pandemic that the OED decided not to pick only one word or term this year. “What struck the team as most distinctive in 2020 was the sheer scale and scope of change. … This event was experienced globally and by its nature changed the way we express every other thing that happened this year.” – The New York Times

Critic Lauren Oyler: “To a certain extent in Europe, you’re more likely to be around people who have been encouraged to read a lot more serious literature and philosophy, and they aren’t just wealthy or upper-class people. Meanwhile, in the United States you can go through an entire private school–to–Ivy League education and still be stupid. There are many very smart Americans, but they aren’t being served by our publishing industry or media or our ‘literary culture.'” – The End of the World Review

What’s going on at the nonprofit foundation “co-founded by Stanley Kunitz, the nation’s 10th Poet Laureate, and Elizabeth Kray, a devoted supporter of poets in New York City”? The ex-staffers, all of whom were laid off in a Zoom call, have some ideas. “The move followed months of staff-led organizing to hold management and the board accountable for ‘frequent complaints of workplace discrimination, sexual harassment, and exploitative labor practices,’ says a statement authored by ex-staff in response to Poets House’s announcement.” – Hyperallergic

The 44th president’s memoir was indeed much longer than he originally planned, and this is only volume one. “He writes in a very classic way. … He sits down with a pen and pad.” And that’s another way he differs from many former presidents: Obama writes his own books. – The New York Times

Yes, it’s partly due to Brexit, and partly due to the pandemic, but the port at Felixstowe backed up so far that some companies won’t even try to import. “People are contacting us saying they’ve paid for books on pre-order as gifts, and we ultimately can’t guarantee delivery.” – BBC

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Verizon Media had been reportedly trying to offload HuffPost for more than a year and has been in negotiations with BuzzFeed for several months about a sale.” The two sites will continue to operate separately, each with its own newsroom. – Variety

The Scottish-American writer’s debut novel follows the title character, an impoverished boy in 1980s Glasgow, “as he attempts to care for his alcoholic mother, Agnes, whose descent into alcoholism coincides with her youngest son’s growing awareness of his sexuality. The novel is dedicated to Stuart’s mother, who died of alcoholism when he was 16.” – The Guardian