The New Yorker has published their own expose of Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual harassment and assault. Writer Ronan Farrow had originally pitched it to NBC, where he is a contributor, but the network turned it down due to “concerns related to the story’s sourcing.” After Mika Brzezinski threatened to cancel a three-book deal with Harvey Weinstein’s publishing imprint, parent company Hachette Book Group reiterated that they will be honoring all contracts from Weinstein Books. “We will consider all our options going forward,” a company spokesperson said, “keeping support for our authors foremost.”
Attica Locke talks to The Millions about black life in rural texas, racism, and her new book, Bluebird, Bluebird. In one chapter of the novel, Locke writes from the point of view of a member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. “I’m always interested in getting at the psychological wounds around racism—be they the wounds of the victims of racism, or be they the psychological wounds of the perpetrators of racism,” she said. “I’m always looking to somehow find out what’s going on at the level of the psyche. Yes there are sociopaths or people who are off the rails crazy. But people come in clean, out of the womb, and there are life experiences that begin to shape your thinking about things. I don’t know that human beings’ first fundamental impulse is hate. It doesn’t mean that you don’t circle around and get there, but what I’m interested in is how the fuck did you get there?”
Wired senior writer Ashley Feinberg is moving to HuffPost, where, according to editor in chief Lydia Polgreen, she will cover the “grotesques of the Trump era, weird stuff on the internet, Ted Cruz.”
The New York Times looks at the lack of diversity in publishing through the lens of romance novels after a recent report showed that less than 10 percent of the genre’s 2016 books were written by non-white authors. “It has to be a good read,” one editor said to explain the discrepancy. “You can only publish what you get.”
Vintage Books is releasing the latest installment in the “50 Shades” series next month. Darker: 50 Shades Darker as Told by Christian tells the story of 50 Shades Darker from Christian Grey’s perspective. “The inside of Christian Grey’s head is a fascinating place to be,” author E. L. James said in a statement. “Writing this novel has been a journey of discovery, and I hope readers will find what I’ve learned as compelling as I did.”
Tonight at the Strand Bookstore in New York, Esther Perel talks about her new book, The State of Affairs.