Reagan Arthur has been named publisher of Knopf, the New York Times reports. Arthur, most recently a senior vice president and publisher at Little, Brown, will succeed Sonny Mehta, who died late last year.
PBS NewsHour’s Jim Lehrer has died at age 85. Lehrer was a cofounder of the program and served as its anchor for thirty-six years.
On the Maris Review, Maris Kreizman talks to Garth Greenwell about queer life in Bulgaria, the futility of looking for answers in art, and his new book, Cleanness. “The deepest questions of human life don’t have answers. There is a reason that the eternal questions are eternal,” he said. “What art can do is try to take dilemma and not resolve it or make it disappear but somehow make it productive of thinking, of beauty, of affect and feeling. That takes dilemma and instead of being impasse, dilemma can be a way of moving forward.”
For the New Yorker, Isaac Chotiner talks to Glenn Greenwald about the charges filed against him by the Brazilian government. “Sometimes it is hard to convey to Western observers just how blunt and direct of a threat is being posed by the current government of Brazil to basic democratic freedoms,” Greenwald explained. “Bolsonaro’s son, in the past couple of months, has threatened to revive the worst dictatorship through decree and do things like shut down media outlets. I think my case is reflective of the sentiment that they just want to put journalists in prison.”
Deadspin has hired Jim Rich as editor in chief, Deadline reports. Rich, who was previously the editor in chief of the New York Daily News, will work at the website’s Chicago headquarters. “No doubt there are challenges ahead,” Rich said in a statement, “but I look forward to building a team that will once again make Deadspin the must-read it deserves to be.”
BookRiot’s Kelly Jensen looks at Reese Witherspoon’s recent search for a librarian in residence for her book club, Hello Sunshine. Although the position has been assumed to be a job, Jensen points out that the search is actually a contest, with no other prize beyond the title of librarian and the possibility of communicating with Witherspoon about books. “It’s disappointing that a company like this can’t pony up money to pay a librarian for this position,” she writes. “It doesn’t bring about an amazing opportunity. It capitalizes on expensive education and expensive experience to continue making a profit for the company.”
