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92nd Street Y readings announced; Turmoil at First Look Media

Ann Patchett

The line-up for the 92nd Street Y’s 2019-20 season has been announced. The schedule includes readings from André Aciman, Jeanette Winterson, Ann Patchett, and more.

Literary Hub offers a literary Emmys guide.

New York magazine’s Sarah Jones reports on the tensions at First Look Media. In response to recent layoffs and the shuttering of both Topic magazine and The Nib, as well as rumors that “the company had acquired, or planned to acquire, a smutty Netflix clone” owned by Elon Musk’s sister, employees have written a letter to management expressing “deep concern” that the company “might branch away from its ideologically driven commitment to journalism.”

For The Atlantic, Rachel Monroe reports on Matthew Cox, a con-man who has restyled himself as a true-crime writer.

Both The Guardian and the New York Times look at Boris Johnson’s novel Seventy-Two Virgins in an attempt to understand more about the potential UK leader. The Guardian’s Mark Lawson writes that the “fundamentally undiplomatic” book “makes you wonder if Johnson’s campaign team should have found and quietly destroyed all extant copies.” At the Times, Alex Marshall talks to Johnson’s biographer Andrew Gimson, who said that “the book showed Johnson’s lack of core beliefs,” which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for a prime minister. “Both in politics and the arts, you shouldn’t be improbably reaching after certainty,” he explained. “Politicians often get stuck with an ideology that makes sense at one point, but circumstances change.”