At the New York Times, Concepción de León reports on the upcoming Bronx Book Festival, organized by Saraciea J. Fennell. A publicist for Tor Books and a Bronx native, Fennell says she was inspired to create the festival after attending a similar event in Brooklyn. “I thought to myself, ‘This is amazing,’” she recalled. “‘Why doesn’t the Bronx have something like this?’” The event will be held this Saturday at Fordham Plaza.
The O. Henry Prize Stories for 2018 have been announced. The selected works will be anthologized in a collection, which will be published this fall by Anchor.
Peter Kafka has been named executive editor of Recode. Kara Swisher, Kafka’s predecessor, will remain with the website as editor at large.
The New York Times has appointed Paul Fishleder to lead the paper’s new political investigations unit, which will cover a range of topics related to the 2018 and 2020 elections.
Scott Indrisek’s cats interview The Female Persuasion author Meg Wolitzer for The Believer.
At the Times Literary Supplement, Nathalie Olah talks to Bret Easton Ellis about #MeToo, David Foster Wallace, and social media’s consensus culture. “I mean I talk about it on my podcast all the time. All the time, ad nauseum. People actually criticize me for it. Oh here we go again, Ellis talking about cultural appropriation and Hollywood straw men and liberal whatever,” he said. “People are hungry to hear someone talk about that. And I don’t think it’s particularly brave or noble but I’m shocked when I hear people say it is.