Less than three years as taking over as the head of Amazon’s publishing division (which now has 11 imprints and 27 editors), Larry Kirshbaum is leaving the company to once again work as a literary agent. Publishers Weekly wonders if this is a sign of trouble for Amazon’s publishing arm:“Amazon’s genre publishing program will not be affected by Kirshbaum’s departure although the future of the trade operation is uncertain. Among the issues confronting the publishing program has been poor distribution into bookstores."
In a statement to a fan site, Morrissey has made it clear that he was not part of legal efforts to take down This Charming Charlie, a Smiths/Peanuts blog that juxtaposes Smiths lyrics with Peanuts cartoons. On the contrary, the singer is "delighted and flattered by the Peanuts comic strip," and he "hopes that the strips remain."
Langston Hughes’ childhood home in Cleveland is on the market for $85,000. The New York Times has published an article about the Washington-state-based Copper Canyon Press, a small publisher of poetry that over the course of its forty-year history has published Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz, Rabindranath Tagore, W.S. Merwin, Hayden Carruth, C.D. Wright, Dean Young, Arthur Sze, and Lucia Perillo, among others.
In an essay about the link between investigative journalism and political responses, Jay Rosen argues that in order for reporting to make a difference, there need to be a number of other factors, for instance an “organizing personality” (like Edward Snowden), evidence of government lying and deliberate secrecy, and the support of other media outlets.
