Barrett Browning’s bleak beachcation: lonely letter lamenting isolation lifted to fame
While books have depicted themes of isolation, pandemics, and loneliness for centuries, I think we can all agree that this is the first time we 21st century folk can relate… Read more »
Mark Dawson just revealed a corrupt system
British author Mark Dawson has been accused of “gaming the system” by purchasing four hundred copies of his new book, The Cleaner, to distribute to people abroad who presumably expressed interest in purchasing copies… Read more »
Science Fiction writers protest Saudi Arabia as possible conference site
We last checked in on Saudi Arabia’s relationship to the greater literary world a little over a year ago. In that story, the mega-talent-agency, Endeavor, had returned the $400 million dollar investment… Read more »
A Gatsby sequel in the Nick of time
As we wrote a good while back, 2019 was to be big year for iconic works making their way into the public domain. But even from that faraway vantage we… Read more »
Oxford English Dictionary charts sociolinguistic impact of Covid-19
Sitting at home thinking up puns on the word “Quar,” referring to your “covid boyfriend,” or texting your friends about what you’ll all do once “the ‘rona rolls through,” you are participating… Read more »
Galley Beggar press turns to the public to recoup unexpected loss . . . human spirit prevails
Just the other day we wrote about the book that was perhaps the publishing story of 2020—Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann—and the galvanizing effect it was having on our friends at Porter Square Books.… Read more »
773 UK libraries have closed in last decade
In just ten years nearly a fifth of the UK’s libraries have closed, reports Alison Flood for the Guardian. Correspondingly, “the number of paid librarians has also plummeted” (from 24,000 to… Read more »
New Indie Book of the Month scheme to launch in the UK
Independent bookshops, unite! The Booksellers Association (BA), a membership organisation for all booksellers in the UK & Ireland, representing over 95% of bookshops, is launching a scheme to promote one… Read more »
Children’s books in the UK remain biased against BAME and female characters for yet another year
Back in July 2018 we reported that only 1% of children’s books in the UK depict Black And Minority Ethnic main characters (BAME), and almost a year later, it seems… Read more »
BBC Books drops transphobic author from Doctor Who anthology
Would you call causal transphobia “cheerful vulgarity” or inexcusable discrimination? Writer Gareth Roberts has discovered the consequences of oversharing on social media when tweets he made back in September 2017… Read more »