The nominees for this year’s AKO Caine Prize for African Writing were announced yesterday. Nominees include Erica Sugo Anyadike, Irenosen Okojie, and Jowhor Ile. The winner will be announced this fall.
Curtis Sittenfeld takes the Lit Hub Questionnaire. She says if she wasn’t a writer she would have wanted to become a doctor and hopes that female politicians like Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Kamala Harris will read her new novel, Rodham. “I’d love to know what they think I got right or wrong about women and politics.”
“I’ve plunged into a world of online bookishness over the past few weeks, surprised by my own need for communion through reading,” writes Gal Beckerman at the New York Times. “Craving dinner in a crowded restaurant, a random encounter in a subway car, the feeling of being swept up in laughter while watching a movie in a theater, I understand. But reading is so solitary. I hadn’t anticipated that I would miss doing it with other people.”
The Atlantic’s Devin Gordon profiles OANN, or One America News Network, Trump’s favorite cable broadcaster. “OAN is a nostalgia machine . . . built for the members of an aging #MAGA army who want to be comforted by news the way they remember it,” he writes. “The same good news, the same bad news. The same invisible enemies too, so that even the nightmares come wrapped in a warm blanket. Gang violence at the top of the hour, baby pandas at the bottom. OAN is post-parody: It’s the straight truth for Trump fans, and completely surreal for everyone else.”
A new study by Pew found that Americans who rely on the White House for their coronavirus news feel that “journalists have been exaggerating the risks,” “coverage has been too negative,” and that “the outbreak has been made a bigger deal than it really is.” The group represents 16 percent of adults in the country, and over 90 percent of those identified as Republican.
After being bought by Cards Against Humanity four months ago, satire website ClickHole is publishing again. “If you liked ClickHole before, you’ll still like it now,” editor in chief Steve Etheridge said. “And if you hated it, you’ll probably still hate it, and there’s no need for you to remind us about this on social media if you have yelled at us in the past — we heard you loud and clear the first time.”
