The finalists for the 2017 PEN/Faulkner Award have been announced. At the Washington Post, Ron Charles reflects on the America represented by the nominees. “There was a time,” he writes, “when all the stars of American literature seemed to be straight white guys named John.” But this year’s finalists—Garth Greenwell, Sunil Yapa, and Imbolo Mbue, Viet Dinh, and Louise Erdrich—are “a sign of how far we’ve progressed from those monochromatic days.”
Penguin Random House imprint Crown will publish the memoirs of both Barack and Michelle Obama. Crown was the likely choice for the Obamas’ next books, as they had previously published both of Barack Obama’s books, Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope, as well as Michelle Obama’s American Grown.
John le Carré is bringing back George Smiley and his secret service colleagues in a new novel. A Legacy of Spies follows Smiley’s mentee Peter Guillam and his fellow retired spies as they “are subject to scrutiny for past misdemeanours, committed at a time when there were fewer scruples about the methods used to win the ideological war raging between the west and the Soviets.” The book will be published by Viking in September.
After WikiLeaks released a trove of documents about CIA hacking tools, The Atlantic’s Kaveh Waddell wonders if, due to questions about the group’s ties to Russia and their role in the election, journalists should be more wary of the site’s information. “Does the gravity of the documents contained in the CIA leak necessitate reporting on them,” he asks, “even before they’re thoroughly vetted?” Waddell points out that even if journalists haven’t become more skeptical of the provided documents, WikiLeaks has changed its strategy anyway. In addition to a well-written press release, the organization also took care to redact more sensitive information and offer reporters a frequently-asked-questions section, with reassurances for writers who worry that other outlets will “find all the best stories before me.” Waddell writes that the new tone makes the site sound “less like a purveyor of newsworthy documents and more like an exclusive club that will only accept reporters who complete a scavenger hunt to the organization’s satisfaction,” Waddell writes. “And the race has already begun.”
At n+1, Dayna Tortorici makes a case for supporting the women’s strike today. Tortorici writes that women’s work has been trivialized for centuries, and while there are myriad excuses as to why, “the real reason we devalue women’s work is because women are the ones who do it.” She points to the wage drops that happen when women start working in previously male-dominated industries, as well as the wage increases that occur in previously female-dominated sectors as men enter the field. “Why do employers pay women less money than men? Because they can. Why do women tolerate it? Because we’re accustomed to losing,” Tortorici explains. “The strike is an opportunity to collectively refuse what some would choose to see as inevitable.”