The shortlist for the 2019 Wellcome Prize has been announced. Nominees include Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Thomas Page McBee’s Amateur, among others. “They ask difficult questions . . . they blend personal with scientific research, cultural with historical, they are very creative,” judging chair Elif Shafak said of the six shortlisted books. “And these voices are very honest. They are unflinching, very candid, even when they’re across difficult subjects.” The winner will be announced in May.
Journalist and The Everything Store author Brad Stone is working on a new book about Amazon. Amazon Unbound, which explores whether or not “Amazon is good for us,” will be published by Simon & Schuster in 2021.
Columbia Journalism Review explores the funding behind The Intercept, which recently announced layoffs of four percent of its staff.
Facebook is launching a local journalism project to combat the problem of news deserts in small communities.
For those of us who “just can’t get enough of this Silicon Valley fraud,” the New York Times offers a reading, viewing, and listening list on the subject of Elizabeth Holmes and her company, Theranos.
Former CNN contributor and Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile is joining Fox News as a contributor. “I know I’m going to get criticized from my friends in the progressive movement for being on Fox News. My response is that, if we’ve learned anything from the 2016 election, it is that we can’t have a country where we don’t talk to those who disagree with our political views,” Brazile said in a statement. “You can be darn sure that I’m still going to be me on Fox News. I’m going to do what I always do: and dish it out straight, exactly as I see it, with just as much New Orleans hot sauce as folks expect.”
