Rhapsody, says the New York Times, is not just an airline magazine but a “lofty” literary journal. “An airline might seem like an odd literary patron,” the article claims. “But as publishers and writers look for new ways to reach readers in a shaky retail climate, many have formed corporate alliances with transit companies, including American Airlines, JetBlue and Amtrak, that provide a captive audience.”
The popular British crime writer Ruth Rendell has died at age eighty-five. Rendell, who has been compared to Patricia Highsmith for her “fixation on criminal misfits,” wrote more than sixty novels, including a series of procedurals featuring the beloved inspector Reg Wexford.
As one of the curators of this year’s PEN World Voices Festival, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the bestselling Nigerian novelist, is hoping to “to show audiences Africa’s range of stories.” The festival, which starts tonight, will feature a number of events focused on Africa and the African diaspora, including a discussion between Teju Cole, Nathalie Handal, and Binyavanga Wainaina, and a closing-night lecture by Adichie.
Contemplating the recent implosion at the New Republic, author and Bookforum editor Chris Lehmann felt that he was witnessing something familiar. “All this had come rushing back because once upon a time, I had lived through it too, in my late, unlamented career as an online news executive in that labyrinth of high-octane managerial passive-aggression known as Yahoo News,” writes Lehmann, who recounts the nightmare in detail at the Baffler.
