At The Guardian, Claudia Rankine explains her plans for her MacArthur “Genius” grant money—she’s going to create a Racial Imaginary Institute. Part art space, part think tank, the Institute will study whiteness, because, Rankine says, “it’s never been the object of inquiry to understand its paranoia, its violence, its rage.” She was motivated when she was unable to find any “books that address the ways in which white contemporary artists deal with whiteness, interrogate it, analyze it.” Rankine went to multiple bookshops, but employees were unable to help, telling her, “I don’t know what you mean.”
St. Martin’s Press is launching a new imprint focused on politics and current affairs. The currently untitled imprint will be headed by Adam Bellow, formerly of Broadside Books.
Editorial staff at Jacobin have unanimously chosen to unionize with NewsGuild of New York. Associate editor Micah Uetrict said the decision came not out of dire working conditions, but out of the politics of the magazine: “The values we’re putting forward, that workers deserve a say in their working conditions and a formal structure to pursue such things, is of a piece with the larger politics of the magazine.”
In light of Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize win, Simon & Schuster is moving up the release date for their new book on Dylan’s songs. Lyrics, 1961-2012, will be available on November 1.
Citing blurred lines between publication categories in the digital landscape, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced yesterday that both print and online magazines will be eligible for the 2017 journalism prizes.
Arthur Gregg Sulzberger, son of New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., has been named deputy publisher of the publication. Sulzberger has held positions throughout the newsroom, including at the national and metro desks, and was a reporter at local newspapers throughout the US. According to the Times article reporting the hire, Sulzberger “was one of three candidates, all cousins.”
The New York Times writes that Chris Wallace’s debate hosting gig could be “a welcome source of pride” for Fox News after “the most traumatic period in its two decade history.” But even though his performance is getting positive reviews, that pride may not last long: Gabriel Sherman will be partnering with Spotlight director Tom McCarthy and producer Jason Blum to create a TV mini-series about former Fox News president Roger Ailes. Ailes had most recently been assisting Donald Trump in his presidential campaign, but according to Sherman, the two have hit a rough patch: “Ailes learned that Trump couldn’t focus . . . and that advising him was a waste of time.”
At the Hollywood Reporter, Michael Wolff calls out the media for tolerating and profiting from the Republican candidate’s predatory behavior for so long: “Thirty years of enabling him and encouraging him. And through more than 18 months of campaigning for president, it really seemed like he was going to get away with being who he was.”
Tonight at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, Jonathan Safran Foer and Rabih Alameddine talk about their new books, Here I Am and The Angel of History.