The De-Canon Project, a “pop-up library” that showcases work by artists of color, has started building a new archive of texts in which writers of color (including Cathy Park Hong, Junot Diaz, and Charles Johnson) discuss craft. As Neil Aitken writes, “A few weeks ago I was thinking about how Junot Diaz often comments on the fact he’s almost never asked to speak about craft, and instead always is asked to talk about race, identity, and the immigrant experience. And it’s true—when I think about all the books on writing craft I’ve read or heard about over the years I’m struck by how few POC-authored books on writing I’ve seen. Are they really that rare? Or are the books and essays out there, but we don’t know where to find them?”
Jessa Crispin, the author of The Dead Ladies Project and Why I Am Not a Feminist, weighs in on Ivanka Trump’s new book Women Who Work: It reads, Crispin quips, “like the scrambled Tumblr feed of a demented 12-year-old who just checked out a copy of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations from the library.”
The Huffpost reports on a new Amazon policy that can further drive down the value of books, punish small booksellers, and “undermine authors.”
The New York Times Book Review’s Radhika Jones talks with Americanah author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about her latest book, Dear Ijeawele; Or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions.
Author and translator Idra Novey has won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and with it $100,000, for her debut novel, Ways to Disappear.
