Novelist Stephen King will receive PEN’s American Literary Service Award. PEN president Andrew Solomon (Far from the Tree) says that King “has inspired us to stand up to sinister forces through his rich prose, his generous philanthropy and his outspoken defense of free expression.”
“It is generosity which reminds us that we are more than our problems.” In a short video airing at PBS, novelist Akhil Sharma (Family Life) reflects on what it means to belong, and on the importance of thinking about others.
HBO has given a sneak peak at Ramin Bahrani’s new adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s dystopian classic Fahrenheit 451.
At Politico, Jack Shafer has this advice for A.G. Sulzberger: “Sell the New York Times. Now.”
Agnes Poirier considers the French publisher Gallimard’s plan to reprint Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s antisemitic pamphlets, which were originally published between 1937 and 1941 and have never been again printed in France. Poirier wonders if the decision to publish the writings by Céline (author of Journey to the End of the Night) has been primarily driven by the hope to make a “quick profit.” A member of the French prime minister’s office has asked Gallimard to reissue the pamphlets “in the spirit of education, rather than in one of sensation.” Amid more heated protest, Gallimard announced last week that it was suspending its plans to publish the works.
