January 17, 2013

The NBA responds to criticisms that the prize has become less culturally relevant… Read more »

Salman Rushdie, Ian Rankin and Joanne Harris amongst those recognised in the Queen’s birthday honours list — Nikki Griffiths
Geetanjali Shree becomes first Indian winner of International Booker Prize — Nikki Griffiths
Footballer Marcus Rashford's mum accepts Book of the Year award on his behalf — Tom Clayton
Pulitzer winners and finalists offer new perspectives — Julianna Yablans

Watson gets its mouth cleaned out

Sal Robinson

Watson, IBM’s Jeopardy!-trouncing supercomputer, has come farther than we’d thought: Eric Brown, the researcher who works with Watson, has had to wipe the contents of the Urban Dictionary from its… Read more »

Poet wins contest …. by copying another poet

Kelly Burdick

Poet Christian Ward recently won the Exmoor Society’s Hope Bourne poetry prize, but there’s a problem, as Alison Flood reports in the Guardian: Organisers later discovered that it [Ward’s poem… Read more »

Martin Luther’s big book of insults

Kevin Murphy

You there! You look like you’re feeling pretty good. What, did you give a fancy presentation at work that had the bosses smiling and winking approvals? Or maybe you and… Read more »

Philip Roth thinks it’s over

Dennis Johnson

Our recent posts about Philip Roth — such as Monday’s post about his regard for his own books, and yesterday’s post about his supposed retirement from writing — have drawn… Read more »

Melville House Books

Mediocrity is not the solution: on the new National Book Awards

Dustin Kurtz