the entire romance writers of america board of directors has now resigned
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 20:39 (four years ago) link
I find myself wondering if this mass resignation was due to ethical considerations or because what they thought would be a prestige citation on their CV wasn't fun anymore.
― A is for (Aimless), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 20:44 (four years ago) link
xpost -- funnily enough, I was just thinking of Michael Field the other day -- read a biography about their life and work some years back.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, February 4, 2020 9:15 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink
reading about Michael Field and their milieu is very interesting, i mean even if you ignore the whole incestuous auntie/niece victorian poetry duo aspect. their family were southcottians with links also to radical politics, which can take you down some interesting rabbit-holes
― frederik b. godt (jim in vancouver), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 21:03 (four years ago) link
oh aye, they ended up converting to catholicism also iirc?
― frederik b. godt (jim in vancouver), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 21:04 (four years ago) link
probably first use of "paranormal MPreg romances" in the nytimes
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/23/business/omegaverse-erotica-copyright.html
― JoeStork, Sunday, 24 May 2020 07:40 (four years ago) link
I am sorry I was not aware of "cockygate" until now, that sounds like a good one.
― Tim, Sunday, 24 May 2020 08:19 (four years ago) link
The story of H.G. Carillo, wow. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/cuban-american-author-hg-carrillo-who-explored-themes-of-cultural-alienation-died-after-contracting-covid-19/2020/05/21/35478894-97d8-11ea-91d7-cf4423d47683_story.html
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 25 May 2020 17:21 (four years ago) link
Yeah, that's wild.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 26 May 2020 01:46 (four years ago) link
https://www.startribune.com/book-critics-circle-officials-resign-citing-privacy-breach/571253712/
The president and five other board members of the National Book Critics Circle have resigned amid allegations of racism and violations of privacy.Laurie Hertzel, who had served as president since 2019, announced over the weekend she was leaving the 24-member board. Her departure came two days after another board member, Ugandan-American writer Hope Wabuke, posted redacted screenshots on Twitter of an email exchange that included correspondence from Hertzel and board member Carlin Romano. The NBCC had been crafting a response to the worldwide protests against police racism and violence.
Laurie Hertzel, who had served as president since 2019, announced over the weekend she was leaving the 24-member board. Her departure came two days after another board member, Ugandan-American writer Hope Wabuke, posted redacted screenshots on Twitter of an email exchange that included correspondence from Hertzel and board member Carlin Romano. The NBCC had been crafting a response to the worldwide protests against police racism and violence.
― j., Monday, 15 June 2020 03:40 (three years ago) link
This is the email I wake up to from one of the longest sitting board members of the national literary organization I am in. This is why #publishingsowhite #PublishingPaidMe #bookcriticismsowhite #BookReviewingsowhite pic.twitter.com/H8HyYSOp5C— Hope Wabuke (@HopeWabuke) June 11, 2020
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Monday, 15 June 2020 17:45 (three years ago) link
The National Book Critics Circle Has Imploded
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 15:42 (three years ago) link
carlin romano sounds like a real piece of work
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 15:43 (three years ago) link
Romano, who once made headlines for writing a review in which he imagined raping the author of the book, has intermittently sat on the board since the mid-’90s.
hm yeah i think this guy shouldn't have been on the board
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 16 June 2020 15:53 (three years ago) link
There's one happening here in Canada where one of the country's most important and outspoken trans writers, poet Gwen Benaway, has been confronted by friends and peers who are publicly asking whether she has lied about her claim to indigeneity.
This is a collective call for Gwen Benaway to be accountable to the Indigenous communities she has claimed. It was written with deep consideration, caution, care and love for community. Please read the entire letter, and be mindful of how you respond. pic.twitter.com/feLuUS1IKg— GB2020 (@GB20209) June 15, 2020
― sean gramophone, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 17:01 (three years ago) link
'apologize for the space she has taken up in the indigenous literary community'
writers sure do know how to cut
― j., Tuesday, 16 June 2020 17:09 (three years ago) link
The squabbling over the crumbs of patronage afforded to that particular corner of the Canadian literary scene is pretty toxic. Benaway's apology should be one for the ages.
― everything, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 18:16 (three years ago) link
i guess i first encountered the concept of the national book critics circle on the back of some book that won their award in the late 70s (probably song of solomon in fact)
my feeling was whatever the late 70s uk translation was of "lol they sound like dorks" so i guess revenge cometh in the evening
(i shd reread song of solomon tho)
― mark s, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 18:39 (three years ago) link
@everything
Yeah, I guess. But I feel an acute sorrow and anxiety about it - several of the people involved already wrestle with psychological liabilities.
― sean gramophone, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 18:44 (three years ago) link
I feel like this is something we will continue to see in Canadian lit
― Rik Waller-Bridge (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 16 June 2020 18:56 (three years ago) link
Is literature an intensification of identity or an escape from it, discuss (not really but I am a little unsettled by the 1 to 1 correspondence we tend to assume exists between the author and ‘their’ text in 2020).
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 19:00 (three years ago) link
My cousin is white but her husband and kids are Alaska Native, and she writes kids' picture books about Alaska Native families, and her bio in the back of at least one of the books is super carefully worded to let people think she's Native without actually saying so.
― Greetings from CHAZbury Park (Lily Dale), Tuesday, 16 June 2020 19:02 (three years ago) link
Tbc the ‘their’ was meant to indicate ambivalence towards the notion that a text fully belongs to its author, mostly because I think there is much value to the oracular/shamanistic idea according to which it is not the ‘I’ of subjective and/or social identity that speaks when poetry happens.xp
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 19:10 (three years ago) link
identity isn't stable but an imaginary fluid thing that evolves/adjusts/reacts + even within a particular identity in a moment in time where it could be said to be fixed there's multitudes + contradictions + internal arguments occurring etc even if they are quickly repressed/integrated i think a text emerges obv from an author but it isn't bound to that author's biography bc their text can betray their identity instead accidentally giving voice to those repressions or flights of fantasy and ultimately maybe writing can act as a transformative force where the author is different once they finished than when they began (and maybe the reader too)
― Mordy, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 19:59 (three years ago) link
dude
periods
― j., Tuesday, 16 June 2020 20:03 (three years ago) link
nah
― Mordy, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 20:04 (three years ago) link
All of that is undeniably true to my mind but it doesn't always square with the political and/or ethical requirement that we refrain from substituting a position of (relative) social privilege for one of disenfranchisement and oppression. My sense is that we ask too much of literature if we expect it to guide us through these thickets: in some cases, it merely exists to make them darker and more inextricable still, and no amount of moral policing can tame a compelling literary work's penchant for equivocity, for better or for worse (e.g. Dostoevsky's 'identity' as a writer was less reactionary and clear-cut than the one he espoused in public towards the end of his life).
xps to Mordy
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 20:13 (three years ago) link
ducks, mordyport
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 20:13 (three years ago) link
With Benaway, considerations such as that are not particularly relevant. The literary scene in questions would barely exist without a network of government-funded grants, appointments, awards, media coverage etc, specific to intersectional identity. "Taking up space" really means sucking up the $$$ and exposure meant for indigenous people.
― everything, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 20:30 (three years ago) link
They're relevant insofar as much of contemporary anglophone poetry explicitly seeks an authentic converge between marginalized authorial identities (ethics) and their linguistic representation (aesthetics). That cultural institutions have evolved over time to financially support this particular literary quest above all others is bound to engender precisely this kind of clusterfuck.
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 20:36 (three years ago) link
did Joseph Boyden ever recover from when he was found out?
― Rik Waller-Bridge (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 16 June 2020 20:38 (three years ago) link
"Recover" - lol, he's getting tens of thousands of euros/USD to appear there as an Indigenous authority. but no, he's (rightly) not welcome in mainstream cdn literary society
@everythingnot sure whether there are any literary scenes on earth (besides "people who are already famous") that would flourish without media coverage or awards.if you're claiming that the success of authors like Benaway or Al3cia 3lli0tt is illegitimate on an artistic/commercial level, i think that's bullshit - they've both published good work, and AE is a bona fide bestseller.
― sean gramophone, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 20:44 (three years ago) link
hoo boy. that's unfortunate (the first sentence)
― Rik Waller-Bridge (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 16 June 2020 20:46 (three years ago) link
I don't see how it's in any way controversial that funds allocated to marginalised cultures shouldn't be given to people who have no connection to that culture. It's not about the work or the reception of the work or even the authenticity of the work, it's about a person benefitting from something that isn't for them.
Also I feel like that letter sean posted was very carefully written to reflect this, and shouldn't really be seen as a clusterfuck.
― emil.y, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 20:55 (three years ago) link
Benaway's adversaries are just sharpening their knives.
― everything, Tuesday, 16 June 2020 21:20 (three years ago) link
identity isn't stable but an imaginary fluid thing that evolves/adjusts/reacts + even within a particular identity in a moment in time where it could be said to be fixed there's multitudes + contradictions + internal arguments occurring
I agree but one's political identity is not the same as personal internal identity and these public disputes and wrangles are always political, not literary per se.
― A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, 16 June 2020 21:26 (three years ago) link
if you're claiming that the success of authors like Benaway or Al3cia 3lli0tt is illegitimate on an artistic/commercial level, i think that's bullshit - they've both published good work, and AE is a bona fide bestseller.― sean gramophone, Tuesday, June 16, 2020 1:44 PM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
― sean gramophone, Tuesday, June 16, 2020 1:44 PM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
Alicia Elliott is a bestseller? If true, colour me surprised. Clusterfuck is only so because stakes are small. Boyden survives because of genuine popularity. But I'm curious, what are her sales?
― everything, Wednesday, 17 June 2020 05:18 (three years ago) link
Carlin Romano's wiki summary throws up a bunch of bbcode errors so it can't be quoted but what an enormous fucking asshole
― Donald Trump Also Sucks, Of Course (milo z), Wednesday, 17 June 2020 07:34 (three years ago) link
xpElliott's essay collection was a "#1 national bestseller" according to the publisher:https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/588523/a-mind-spread-out-on-the-ground-by-alicia-elliott/9780385692380
― dip to dup (rob), Wednesday, 17 June 2020 12:41 (three years ago) link
Alicia's book has appeared very regularly on the non-fiction bestseller list since it was published.
― sean gramophone, Wednesday, 17 June 2020 13:41 (three years ago) link
Kind of unrelated, but does anyone even pretend to care about Québécois literature at all in anglo Canada?
― pomenitul, Wednesday, 17 June 2020 13:46 (three years ago) link
juries do: translated works by C4therine Leroux, Eric Dup0nt, S4muel 4rchibald, etc, have all been shortlisted for the Giller. but they go relatively unread. the same is true in reverse: even several young, biliingual quebecois writers i know had never heard of miriam to3ws until a year and a half ago.
― sean gramophone, Wednesday, 17 June 2020 13:53 (three years ago) link
the same is true in reverse
I'd never heard of her either so QED.
It's also worth pointing out that Leroux was Toronto correspondent for Radio-Canada and Dupont teaches translation at McGill, so they've already got one foot in the ROC, so to speak.
― pomenitul, Wednesday, 17 June 2020 13:59 (three years ago) link
(The sociology of literary scenes is by far the worst thing about literature.)
― pomenitul, Wednesday, 17 June 2020 14:02 (three years ago) link
truly the national book critics circle is a circle
― mark s, Wednesday, 17 June 2020 14:05 (three years ago) link
It looks like an indivisible dot when viewed from space.
― pomenitul, Wednesday, 17 June 2020 14:06 (three years ago) link
Why are all the worst literary clusterfucks Canadian?
― all cats are beautiful (silby), Wednesday, 17 June 2020 21:00 (three years ago) link
the stakes are so small
― j., Wednesday, 17 June 2020 21:02 (three years ago) link
Shame on you.
(100% otm tho)
― pomenitul, Thursday, 18 June 2020 03:20 (three years ago) link
Seems to be dumpster fire season in the SFF writing community again. Good to see the squirming apologies from some of the most egregious pricks who've been called out. SF conventions sound like the worst place in the world to be even if you're not being serially harassed by some entitled author twat, btw.
― tired of waiting for icu (Matt #2), Thursday, 25 June 2020 13:55 (three years ago) link
links or it didn’t happen
― sound of scampo talk to me (El Tomboto), Thursday, 25 June 2020 15:31 (three years ago) link