This week! Books! It’s been a seriously dark time in this country with a horrific mass shooting at massage parlors in Atlanta and an uptick in hate crimes against Asian-Americans. Author Alexander Chee talked to poet and critic Cathy Park Hong about how anti-Asian violence must be a bigger part of the anti-racism discourse, and […]
Bookstores
This year in books 2020
This year! Books! This will be the last “This Week in Books” of our godforsaken year 2020, and I wanted to take a minute to reflect on the year that was in the book world. While I was recovering from COVID in early April, I interviewed publishing industry sage Mike Shatzkin on the effects the […]
Honoring Juneteenth in the book world (This week in books)
This week! It’s Juneteenth, the holiday that commemorates the emancipation of slaves in Texas two full years after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Here are some of the articles about Juneteenth this morning that caught my eye: Jamelle Bouie on the centrality of slaves in the struggle for emancipation and a better America. Mary Harris […]
Ways to make a difference in the book world (This week in books)
This week! Books! Also justice! We’ve had an incredibly distressing week in America, and I know a lot of people are wondering how to get involved and support this movement to end systemic injustice and brutality. There are tons of exhaustive resources out there, from bail funds to proposals for reform to call scripts for […]
Layoffs hit the publishing industry (This week in books)
This week in the apocalypse! I mean books! Well, in my interview with Mike Shatzkin earlier in the week we speculated that a wave of layoffs would hit the industry in the wake of the pandemic, and it didn’t take long for that to bear out. Macmillan announced an unspecified number of layoffs, as well […]
Write what makes you excited (This week in books)
This week! Books! First up, thanks everyone for all the well wishes this past week, they meant a lot. I’m doing much better now and things should start picking up again around here. (And I’m still available to edit your work). Being sick these past few weeks has not been fun at all, but I’m […]