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…
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Ian MacAllen
1314 posts
Ian MacAllen is the author of Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American (Rowman & Littlefield, April 2022). His writing has appeared in Chicago Review of Books, Southern Review of Books, The Offing, 45th Parallel Magazine, Little Fiction, Vol 1. Brooklyn, and elsewhere. Find him at IanMacAllen.com.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…