Posts by author
Ian MacAllen
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Notable NYC: 1/16–1/22
Saturday 1/16: Olena Jennings, Brooke Obie, and Sachiko Clayton join the Oh, Bernice! reading series. Astoria Bookshop, 7 p.m., free. Shiv Kotecha and James Hoff join the Segue Series. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., $5. Sunday 1/17: Diamond Sharp, Bud Smith,…
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The Missing Hong Kong Booksellers: A Rumpus Roundup
Hong Kong functions as a semi-autonomous city-state, a condition imposed when the United Kingdom ceded control to Beijing. Hong Kong’s special status has allowed its independent bookstores to sell two kinds of books banned in mainland China: political books and…
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Authors Demand Better Wages
Writers’ wages are down—as much as 30% since 2009. The Authors Guild is looking to change that in 2016. NPR spoke with the organization’s executive director, Mary Rasenberger, about pursuing better contracts from publishers and challenging court cases that have…
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This Week in Indie Bookstores
If you ever wanted to own one of the nation’s oldest bookstores, now’s your chance. Otto Bookstore in Williamsport, Pennsylvania has been operating since 1841, but the 81-year-old proprietor is in the market to sell. The Oregonian names Portland’s 10 best…
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Influencing Writing by Reading
Reading is an important part of developing as a writer. But what happens when all the books and authors we read are a homogenous group of white males? Non-white, non-male writers may still end up defaulting to writing about white male…
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David Bowie: A Rumpus Roundup
Musical and creative icon David Bowie died Sunday night, succumbing to cancer at the age of sixty-nine. Bowie and his persona Ziggy Stardust produced more than two dozen studio albums—transcending rock stardom by scoring films and television shows, writing off-Broadway musicals,…
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Notable NYC: 1/9–1/15
Saturday 1/9: Erica Baum and Jameson Fitzpatrick join the Segue Series. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., $5. Sunday 1/10: D. Watkins, Erika Anderson, and Mensah Demary join The Hustle series where writers discuss how to pay bills with their craft. WORD…
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The End of a Library
One of the great challenges of libraries and archives is preserving the collections. Not all materials decay at the same rate and while some items can last thousands of years, other items are much more fragile. Now, scientists studying hundreds…
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Indie Presses Become Gatekeepers
Big publishers traditionally rely on income from known authors to support taking risks on new writers. But those publishers have grown more risk-averse, avoiding unknown writers and focusing on mainstream books expected to perform well in the marketplace. Meanwhile, independent publishers are filling the…
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Notable NYC: 1/2–1/8
Monday 1/4: Desiree Bailey and Kristen Gallagher read poetry. Poetry Project, 8 p.m., $8. Wednesday 1/6: Tim Manley, Adepero Oduye, Colin Wilhm, Danielle Kraese, and Donna Goldman join the Catapult Student Showcase. Sid Gold’s, 6:30p.m., free. Thursday 1/7: Stacy Szymaszek,…
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Public Libraries Serve the Public
Public libraries should not be run like businesses, argues Linda Holt over at the London Review of Books. They serve as a critical resource for a variety of marginalized populations: …libraries became far more than an intellectual version of the mythical…
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This Week in Indie Bookstores
A Saudi Arabian bookstore chain has removed Donald Trump’s book from its shelves because of offensive comments the real estate developer and reality television star has made during his presidential campaign. A bookstore in Saratoga Springs bookstore found itself the…