paper trail

Splinter shuts down; Sarah Ruhl writing memoir

Sarah Ruhl. Photo: Zack DeZon

G/O Media shut down news website Splinter yesterday. Although the company said there would be no layoffs as a result of the closure, Digiday reports that at least one employee has been let go and remaining employees “will be given opportunities to apply for open positions within G/O Media.” “Despite the hard work of everyone on that staff, which has produced much outstanding journalism and great scoops, establishing a steady and sustainable audience for a relatively young site proved challenging in a fiercely competitive sector,” a memo announcing the closure said.

PEN America has responded to Peter Handke’s 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature win. “We are dumbfounded by the selection of a writer who has used his public voice to undercut historical truth and offer public succor to perpetrators of genocide,” PEN America President Jennifer Egan said in a statement. “We reject the decision that a writer who has persistently called into question thoroughly documented war crimes deserves to be celebrated for his ‘linguistic ingenuity.’ At a moment of rising nationalism, autocratic leadership, and widespread disinformation around the world, the literary community deserves better than this.”

Playwright and Letters From Max coauthor Sarah Ruhl is writing a new book. Smile will be a memoir about “her nearly decade-long struggle with Bell’s palsy, her search for a way to speed up her recovery and how she reckoned with the inability to fully express her inner self” as a result of the condition. The memoir will be published by Simon & Schuster.

Vice News will produce three new podcasts for Spotify.

New York Media has made several post-merger hires. Helen Shaw will be Vulture and New York magazine’s theater critic, and The Cut has hired Adrienne Green and Kerensa Cadenas as senior editors.