News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff
Literary Losses
Echo Brown, author of Black Girl Unlimited and The Chosen One, died Sept. 16 of renal failure at the age of 39. Brown had been battling end-stage kidney disease caused by lupus. She was “widely praised for her genre-fluid YA novels that blend memoir and magical realism” (Publishers Weekly.) Until her death, Brown had been working on her third novel, a collaboration with filmmaker Tyler Perry (and based on his screenplay); A Jazzman’s Blues is scheduled for January 2024.
Before turning to novels, Brown wrote and performed a one-woman show, “Black Virgins Are Not for Hipsters,” which toured for two years across the US and in Europe. She also gave two TEDx talks, “Transforming the Stage through Laughter and Pain” and “There Are No Promised Lands” (both viewable on YouTube.)
Obituaries and tributes: Dovin funeral home; Publishers Weekly. Bibliography and Biography: Goodreads
Bookish News
- FTC Sues Amazon for Illegally Maintaining Monopoly Power (FTC) (News coverage and analysis on NPR and Reuters)
- Book Business Applauds Government Lawsuit Against Amazon (Publishers Weekly)
- Bomb threat cancels drag story time at King’s English Bookshop, store closes for day (Salt Lake Tribune) According to the bookstore’s Instagram, they are pretty shaken up, and have cancelled story times for a week to “get our feet under us.” Note: The King’s English is one of my favorite indie bookstores, and I try to visit every time I am in Salt Lake City. I was just there in early September.
- New California law bars schoolbook bans based on racial and LGBTQ topics (NPR)
- In a Blistering Opinion, Judge Officially Blocks Texas Book Rating Law (Publishers Weekly)
- American Library Association Releases Preliminary Data on 2023 Book Challenges (ALA)
- Jared Kushner pressured Washington Post to fire editor over Russia, book says (The Guardian)
- New S&S Program, Books Belong, Takes Aim at Book Bans (Publishers Weekly)
- Scholastic Launching Black Bookselling Conference (Shelf Awareness) (More at Scholastic.com)
- Cyberattack Disrupts Sales for [Planned] Rebecca Yarros Event at Anderson’s Bookshop in Illinois (Shelf Awareness)
- FCC Chairwoman Proposes to Restore Net Neutrality Rules (FCC) Not strictly book-related, but it could affect streaming services.
Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week begins tomorrow, October 1, and culminates with Let Freedom Read Day on Oct. 7. This year’s Honorary Chair is Levar Burton (best known for Roots, Star Trek: Next Generation, and the long-running PBS show Reading Rainbow.) Check out the planned events and download graphics at bannedbooksweek.org. Shelf Awareness has a good rundown as well.
AI (“artificial intelligence”)
Earlier this week, I published a post on “AI and Intellectual Property Theft,” which includes the recent revelations that many pirated, copyrighted works were used to train Meta’s generative AI. The post contains a number of links related to that story.
Below are more links to other stories about how generative AI is interacting with the book industry. Links go from most recent to oldest.
- Want to Save Your Job From A.I.? Hollywood Screenwriters Just Showed You How (New York Times, Sept. 29; possible paywall)
- Amazon restricts authors from self-publishing more than three books a day after AI concerns (The Guardian, Sept. 20)
- Self-publishers must declare if content sold on Amazon’s site is AI-generated. “Retailer announces new rules for its Kindle Direct Publishing forum after complaints about AI-produced works being sold under human writers’ names.” (The Guardian, Sept. 11)
- Mushroom pickers urged to avoid foraging books on Amazon that appear to be written by AI because they may contain dangerous advice. (The Guardian, Sept. 1)
Worth Reading/Viewing
- Banned in the USA: The Mounting Pressure to Censor (PEN America report)
- Nora Roberts: ‘I Wish the Freedom to Read for Everyone’ (Shelf Awareness)
- Susie Dent: ‘English has always evolved by mistake’ – A British linguist and word historian on the delights of lost and obscure English words. (The Guardian)
For Writers & Bloggers
- It’s NaNoWriMo Prep Season. Check out NaNo Prep 101.
Books, Movies, and TV
- Hollywood writers return to work, after a nearly five month strike (NPR) (More coverage & analysis at NYT [possible paywall]; Variety)
- Back to Work! Studios Eye Post-Strike Plans to Prioritize Production on ‘Stranger Things,’ ‘Euphoria,’ ‘House of the Dragon’ and More, including Star Trek (Variety)
- Hollywood CEOs Thought They Could Wait Out a Writers’ Strike. They Were Wrong. (New Republic)
- Michael Gambon, star of Harry Potter and The Singing Detective, dies aged 82 (The Guardian). (Also at Deadline; NPR; Variety.)
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits
The strike news is so good! I’m really happy that they got that AI stuff in the contract.
I hadn’t heard about Michael Gambon yet. We’ve been focused on news about Dianne Feinstein here (since I’m in California, and she was my senator for all of my adult life).
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…This is Halloween Linkity