More than 80 published writers in Buenos Aires receive monthly pensions meant to strengthen to “vertebral column of society.” Sums can reach nearly $900 a month.
Writers Pensions: Should We Have Them, Too?
The Ultimate Bestseller
This week in book-related infographics: Waterstones has put together an illustrated formula for the ultimate bestseller, “a thriller tale of crime, bondage and wizardry.”
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A New Robert Galbraith Novel
You may have heard that J.K. Rowling published a crime novel last year under the pen name Robert Galbraith. According to her alter ego’s website, Rowling will publish another novel as Galbraith, one featuring (again) the private investigator Cormoran Strike. (If you missed it, you should definitely read Elizabeth Minkel’s recent piece on Ron/Hermione and authorial regrets.)
Epistolary Criticism
Full Stop’s book club is discussing the stories of Clarice Lispector throughout this week in an in-depth email exchange conducted by contributors Becca Rothfeld and Nathan Goldman. Pair with Magdalena Edwards‘s Millions review of the collection.
Language is a Passport
Haruo Shirane writes for Public Books about writing and publishing in the age of English. As he explains it, “For those living in the Anglosphere, no barrier seems to stand between their world and the many other worlds that now appear at the push of a button. But for those outside that world, particularly in non-European countries, the literary and linguistic consequences of globalization in the age of English can often be severe.”
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Should We Even Publish This?
Following a recent essay on the value of ambivalence, our own Mark O’Connell explores the nature of confidence in this week’s New York Times Magazine. Perhaps not surprisingly, he writes that this year’s Web Summit convinced him that tech moguls are congenitally more confident than writers.
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Jack White, Publisher
Recommended reading: Lauren O’Neal writes for the LA Review of Books about analog music, Millennial poetry and Jack White‘s foray into publishing.
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