In response to the Nobel Prize’s hiatus due to sexual misconduct at the Swedish Academy, The Guardian reports that “more than 100 Swedish writers, actors, journalists and other cultural figures have formed the New Academy, which will hand out its own award this autumn.” In a statement, the group explained that they founded the organization “to remind people that literature and culture at large should promote democracy, transparency, empathy and respect, without privilege, bias, arrogance or sexism.” The prize will be awarded in December, and the group will disband afterward.
Atlantic Media is selling Quartz to a Japanese media firm. Uzabase Inc. will pay up to $110 million for the business-news website. Columbia Journalism Review writes that the deal is no cause for celebration, since “Atlantic Media has been shopping the site around to potential buyers on and off since 2015, and it wound up being sold to a little-known Japanese media startup not much older than itself.”
A federal judge has dismissed the copyright infringement lawsuit against The Girls author Emma Cline. “I’m extremely gratified that a judge has dismissed the meritless claims against my novel,” Cline said in a statement to The Cut. “As deeply painful as it has been to bring this dispute into the light, I’m glad I did not capitulate. My book is and always has been my own.”
Junot Díaz has given his first interview since being accused of sexual misconduct and harassment. The author denied all allegations against him, and said that the accusations don’t sound “like anything that’s in my life, anything that’s me.” Díaz’s accusers spoke out against his denials. “Why would we be doing this if we weren’t telling the truth,” said Monica Byrne in a tweet. “We have nothing to gain and everything to lose. I’d rather be doing anything else.”
The Society of Professional Journalists has named former Associated Press editor Rod Hicks as its inaugural Journalist on Call. In a statement, SPJ explained that the role was created to help journalists “understand why the public doesn’t trust them and what they can do to re-earn more trust.” "We are at a critical time in our democracy — a time when citizens more than ever need to understand the need for an aggressive free press,” Hicks said in his own statement. “I will work to help them understand why this is so vital to every individual in our country."
