“[T]aken as a whole, the shortlist from which this year’s judges choose their winner tomorrow night is just more evidence of the continued neo-colonial cultural dominance of the UK and the US – the institutions, the power, the money, the contacts.” How to win the Man Booker? According to the numbers, move to London or New York. In case you feel like placing bets anyway, here’s this year’s shortlist.
Place Yer Man Booker Bets
Grammatical Tweets
Are birds’ tweets grammatical? According to a recent study by Kentaro Abe and Dai Watanabe of Kyoto University, songbirds may communicate using sophisticated grammar.
A Poetic Comeback
Jennifer Hizaji takes a look at the recent rise in poetry's popularity in the United States, the first increase in readers since about 2002.
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Movies R Fun
Check out the online slideshow of Movies R Fun, a collection of drawings done for the 2010 “Lil’ Inappropriate Golden Books” series by Pixar story artist Josh Cooley. He even sells prints on his website.
On the Cover
Janet Hansen, designer for Alfred A. Knopf, explains her process in creating the cover for Steven Millhauser’s Voices in the Night. Look back on our comparisons of U.S. and U.K. book covers.
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