The National Book Critics Circle has announced the finalists for the John Leonard Prize, an award given for the best first book.
At the Washington Post, Lisa Kleypas, an author of romance novels, takes issue with Hillary Clinton for her recent comments about the romance-novel industry, in which the politician suggested that men and women learn abusive behaviors from novels about “women being grabbed and thrown on a horse and ridden off into the distance.” “Your comment, especially pulled out of context, doesn’t represent all romance novels,” Kleypas writes. “It’s a misleading cliche about the genre—like so many misleading cliches about your fabulous trailblazing life.”
The New York Times has an interesting article about the Mekong Review, a quarterly journal about literature and politics in Southeast Asia. The review was started in 2015, and so far has survived despite frequent censorship in the region’s press. “Supporters say it is a welcome platform for Southeast Asian writers and scholars of the region, as well as a sharp political voice in countries where speech is perennially threatened.”
PEN America reports that Cameroonian-American writer, poet, and professor Patrice Nganang was detained by police in Cameroon on December 7, just after publishing an article critical of the Biya government.
