Tonight, St. Joseph’s College is hosting a birthday tribute to the late, great novelist Gilbert Sorrentino. Organized by Doubleday editor (and Bookforum contributor) Gerald Howard and Greenlight Bookstore, the event will feature readings and discussions of his work by a stellar group of admirers, including Don DeLillo, Sam Lipsyte, Joshua Cohen, Christopher Sorrentino, Mark Chiusano, and James Wolcott.
Alexis Madrigal, a former reporter at The Atlantic and the author of Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology, has been named Fusion’s new editor in chief. Hillary Frey, director of global news operations, has been named executive editor, and Anna Holmes, editor of digital voices and storytelling, is becoming editorial director. In his memo announcing the new positions, Fusion CEO Isaac Lee stated: “We highlight voices that aren’t being heard and we create media no one else can. We have faith in the power of youth and humor and new ideas. We side with the street. And we’re building a brand that will mean something to the most diverse generation America has ever seen.”
“Over the last six years, a confluence of forces have eroded the foundation of the relationship between the White House and the reporters who cover it most regularly,” writes Hadas Gold and Sarah Wheaton at Politico. One significant change is the rise of social media, which has allowed the White House to get messages to the public without the press. Now, the White House press corps is circulating a document that it hopes will establish principles that the White House will adhere to when dealing with reporters, who are hoping to reestablish or at least retain their eroding access to the president.
Wired, taking its cue from the Tumblr page “Kindle Cover Disasters,” has inaugurated a series of reviews of “absurd self-published e-books.” The first title considered is Lawrence Ambrose’s Moira: The Zorzen War (The Divided Worlds Book 3), in which the title heroine navigates a strange embattled land of satyrs and Zorzen, who are “evil cultish lizard-men who practice a perverted form of Christianity and seek total domination over this alien world.”
At Salon, Corey Robin notes George Packer’s inability to get excited about the 2016 campaign, and quips: “When George Packer gets bored, I get worried. It means he’s in the mood for war.” It’s a tough-minded piece, with some very harsh words for Packer’s coverage of Gore and Iraq. The headline, however, could use some work. “Our perverse centrist patriots: Everything the elite media gets wrong about American politics” misrepresents the story, and was most likely written in the hopes of luring readers.
