The Committee to Protect Journalists has issued a demand that Cuban authorities stop harassing reporter Carlos Manuel Álvarez, who is the director of the Cuban online literary journalism magazine El Estornudo, a contributor to El País, and the author of the novel The Fallen, which was released in English translation by Graywolf in June. Over the past month, Álvarez has been detained, held under house arrest, and assaulted by security agents, all in retribution for his support of the San Isidro movement in Cuba.
Writer Barry Lopez has died. His books include the National Book Award–winner Arctic Dreams, which recounted five years spent with the Inuit people in a frozen environment, and last year’s Horizon, which documents the author’s journeys to and meditations on regions ranging from the Kenyan desert to the ice shelves of Antarctica.
Ocean Vuong’s 2019 novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is being adapted for the screen.
At Hyperallergic, Albert Mobilio and John Yau name their favorite poetry books of 2020.
In a story in the Times, author Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy, and photographer Andre D. Wagner offer reflections on growing up Black in Mississippi and in New York.
