Anyone who’s majored in the humanities has likely heard warnings that it’s better to major in the sciences. If, as many would have it, we live in a scientist’s world, what place is there for the arts? At the Ploughshares blog, Cathe Shubert finds a place for writers in a STEM-obsessed society. You could also read Cathy Day on the job prospects of writers.
Airy Fairy
RIP Tom Clancy
The Times is reporting that bestselling author Tom Clancy has died. The Baltimore native, who became famous for writing novels (including The Hunt for Red October and The Sum of All Fears) that inspired blockbuster movies, passed away last night in Johns Hopkins Hospital at the age of 66. (His next book, Command Authority, is planned for publication on December 3.)
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VIDA Women of Color
This week in lit news: VIDA, the organization that’s been counting appearances by women writers in major literary journals since 2010, will expand their 2014 count to include data on race/ethnicity.
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Considering the Bittersweet End of Susan Falls
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Tuesday New Release Day: Ogawa, Iyer, Irving
New this week: Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales by Yoko Ogawa and Exodus by Lars Iyer (both were covered in our big book preview). John Irving’s In One Person is out in paperback.
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Murakami’s latest out in Japan
The third volume of Haruki Murakami’s mega-hit 1Q84 went on sale Friday morning in Japan.
The Half-Windsor
Recommended Reading: Alex Myers’s essay “Just Like…” on Hobart. “I was seventeen, and I wanted to show him – and everyone else (most of all, myself) – that I could be a man on my own terms.”