paper trail

New book imprint honors Harriet Tubman

William Gibson. Photo: Fred Armitage

Tsehai Publishers is launching an imprint in honor of Harriet Tubman, publishing fiction, nonfiction, and academic works focused on African American issues in the US. The imprint, a joint effort with Loyola Marymount University, will publish its first book, Voices From Leimert Park, this fall.

Shannon Paulus writes about the lack of independent fact checking in book publishing, after an excerpt of Luke Dittrich’s Patient H.M. in the New York Times called the accuracy of Dittrich’s book into question: “I’ve long wished that fact-checked material would carry some kind of stamp on it noting if it had been independently and thoroughly fact-checked. (Internet articles included—this one wasn’t.)”

Science fiction writer William Gibson—known for creating the term cyberspace, as well as for his books Neuromancer, The Peripheral, among others—talks to Matt Rosoff about Twitter, Armageddon, and the sci-fi author as prophet. When it comes to writers predicting the future, Gibson says he’s “always been intensely uncomfortable with the idea.”

Elizabeth D. Samet reviews Life and Fate, Vasily Grossman’s novel about living through World War II in Russia. “What Grossman observes in “Life and Fate” about the psychological state of the individual in war might also be said of nations—perhaps of the United States, enmeshed in resurgent violence in the Middle East and lingering still in Afghanistan after 15 years of conflict.”

Carey Purcell writes about her time at Trump magazine, where she worked as the receptionist for publisher Michael Jacobson. During her six months at the job, Donald Trump did not come to the office once.

A Daily Beast article about sex at the Olympics in Rio has been removed from the website after being called out by gay athletes and LGBTQ-rights organizations. The article focused on mobile dating apps, particularly Grindr, and although it did not name names, many readers objected to the fact that there was enough detail to identify the athletes, some of whom were representing countries that outlaw homosexuality.