Posts by author
Ian MacAllen
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Throwing Hachette to the Wolves
Amazon and Hachette appear to have entered into a war of attrition, a battle that Hachette, with a more limited budget, is surely going to lose. Alone, Hachette will fall. News that Simon & Schuster easily signed a deal with…
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Books Inspire Better Listicles
Millennials may love their listicles, memes, and Internet kitsch, but they also love books. A new Pew study has shown the Millennials are more likely to read than older generations. And all those books are fodder for less serious content,…
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The New York City Moby Dick Marathon
Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick was first published on November 14th, 1851, and for the second year, a marathon reading of the novel will take place in New York City to commemorate its publication. The event is held over three…
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Little Free Libraries Come to Detroit
Detroit has been trying to remake itself as a city that welcomes creative people, particularly writers, such as with the Write A House program that grants writers a house in the city. Now, Detroit is getting twenty Little Free Libraries,…
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Notable NYC: 11/8–11/14
Saturday 11/8: Brooklyn Comic Arts Festival. Mt. Carmel Church, 11 a.m., free. Elizabeth Lopeman reads Trans Europe Express (November 2014) about an American au pair considering abandoning her host family. BookCourt, 4 p.m., free. Peter Friedman, Rachel Nelson, Tommy Pico,…
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Creativity Is Messy
Technically perfect writing is important when it comes to journalism or nonfiction, and especially helpful when writing with short deadlines. Fiction writing is different though. Nicole Bernier, over at Beyond the Margins, explains why grammatically sloppy writing might be the…
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Trigger Art
Feminists and transphobic conservatives have found common ground in attacking Lena Dunham after the publication of her memoir revealed that her seven-year-old self had been curious about her sister’s vagina. Dunham creates trigger art, explains Sarah Seltzer at Flavorwire, intentionally…
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The Comic Sans Typewriter
Artist Jess England has created a Comic Sans typewriter, dubbed the Sincerity Machine. England explains the genesis of the project on his website: As part of my ongoing thesis of questioning how we create, consume, store (and fetishize) media, it’s…
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Women Are More Interesting
Nick Hornby often ends up fielding questions from fans eager to understand why he frequently writes about women, especially since he’s a man. Many of his novels feature female protagonists, and his second career as a screenwriter includes what he…
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Notable NYC: 11/1–11/7
Saturday 11/1: Adam Fitzgerald, Dara Wier, Sarah Rose Nordgren, and Bridget Talone read poetry. Berl’s Poetry Shop, 7 p.m., free. Mark Cugini, Iris Cushing, Dorothea Lasky, and Sam Wilder join the Banquet Reading Series. Greenpoint Heights, 8 p.m., free. Sunday…
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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Late Night Football Strategy Sessions
A century ago, Princeton University was a premiere football school. As a freshman, F. Scott Fitzgerald was cut from the team after just one day. But that didn’t stop him from calling the famed football coach Fritz Crisler in the…
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Crowdsourcing Publishing
As if upending the publishing industry with its ongoing battle with Hachette wasn’t enough, now Amazon wants to cut out publishers entirely. Amazon is launching a new program called Kindle Scout, a system where customers will read excerpts and vote on…