News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff
Bookish News
- Alice Munro knew my stepfather sexually abused me as a child, says Nobel laureate’s daughter (The Guardian) Andrea Skinner told her mother and informed the police almost 30 years after the abuse first occurred when she was nine. Her stepfather admitted to the abuse and received a suspended sentence; Munro left him temporarily but “loved him too much” and remained with him until his death.
- ABA launched “Indies Take the Gold” event to counter Amazon’s Prime Days (American Bookseller Association)
- B&N’s Daunt: Tattered Cover to ‘Figure Out How It Becomes Tattered Cover Again’ as B&N steps in to buy the beleagured Denver bookstore chain. (Shelf Awareness)
- With Fantasy on Fire, Print Book Sales Are Catching Up to 2023 (Publishers Weekly)
- 20 Canadian authors have withdrawn from the Scotiabank Giller Prize to protest Scotiabank’s “ties to companies ‘complicit in Israel’s ongoing occupation, displacement and murder of Palestinians.’” (Literary Hub)
- Hurricane Beryl Update: Houston Booksellers in Recovery Mode (Shelf Awareness)
- The Crime Writers’ Association announce the winners of the 2024 Daggers Awards on July 4.
- Small Press Community Slowly Builds Back After SPD Failure (Publishers Weekly)
- Game of Thrones’ George RR Martin falls foul of Glasgow sci-fi event’s strict rules. (The Guardian) To be clear, Martin is welcome to attend and to interact with fans unofficially, but he won’t officially be on the program. The Glasgow WorldCon committee’s rules required that all participants in Con programs complete and submit a application form. Martin apparently reached out to committee members with proposals for his participation, and received a copy of the form in reply. The implication is that he did not submit the form.
Worth Reading/Viewing
- Swept Away by Romantasy (Imaginary Worlds podcast) – audio, or you can read the transcript.
- Women of color disproportionately targeted by book bans, study finds (University of Colorado)
- ‘Sorry, we don’t want lesbians’: Bridgerton’s problem with racism, homophobia and body-shaming (The Guardian) CONTAINS SPOILERS. For the record, although I haven’t yet watched the show, I am a longtime fan of the books, and I am delighted by the diverse casting and storylines.
- Ever wonder how dictionary editors decide which words to include, and how to spell them? This 2017 article on “fanfiction” vs. “fan fiction” explains the circular logic behind what ends up in the dictionary: “In other words, the dictionary says the spelling is “fan fiction” because edited texts use “fan fiction,” but edited texts use “fan fiction” because the dictionary says so.” (Fansplaining)
- ‘Reading’s in danger’: Frank Cottrell-Boyce on books, kids – and the explosive power of Heidi (The Guardian)
For Writers & Bloggers
- 4theWords is changing its subscription plan beginning August 1. Current subscribers can purchase additional time at the current rates until the end of July. The new subscription plan will have three tiers: a bare-bones free version, a standard version, and a pro/premium version. Standard and pro will both cost more per month than the current subscription. And writers will no longer pay by first purchasing crystals, but will use actual money.
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