Author of two novels (and co-author of a work of nonfiction with his wife and husband of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom author Amy Chua) as well as longtime professor at Yale Law School Jed Rubenfeld has been suspended from the university over sexual harassment allegations. The Intelligencer reports that the allegations span decades and include “verbal harassment, unwanted touching, and attempted kissing, both in the classroom and at parties at Rubenfeld’s home.” He “will leave his position as a member of the YLS faculty for a two-year period, effective immediately,” the school said, and upon any return, he would […]
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NBCC Members Recommend Governance and Diversity Changes
Thirty members of the National Book Critics Circle wrote an open letter to the NBCC board and general membership on Wednesday expressing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and making recommendations for changes moving forward. The letter, which invites other members to sign on, is a response to a June controversy over the drafting of an anti-racist statement by the board, which resulted in mass resignations. In light of all of the work to be done, the authors also “urge the cancelation of the 2020 NBCC awards and ceremony.” “We are committed to dismantling anti-Black, patriarchal power structures, unlearning […]
NBCC Elects New Board Members, Seeks Advice on Removing Romano
The National Book Critics Circle appointed 15 new board members as planned at a special meeting on July 14, and also received legal advice about facilitating a special membership meeting to remove board member Carlin Romano. Five of the elected board members are former board members who resigned their positions last month and were willing to rejoin given planned changes. “The end result,” writes the NBCC in a press release, “Is the most diverse board in NBCC history and one of the most experienced.” The newly elected board members are: Diego Baez, Stephanie Burt, Rod Davis, Charles Finch, Rigoberto Gonzalez, […]
NBCC Sets Special Meeting to “Repopulate” Board, As Romano Objects
The National Book Critics Circle will hold a special board meeting on July 14, focusing on, among other things, repopulating the board which saw 15 resignations in June. Acting president Jane Ciabattari wrote in what was supposed to be a confidential email to the board on July 6 that they also aim to “[approve] amended and restated bylaws prepared for us by our attorneys” and formally call a Special Membership Meeting as “requested in writing…to vote on removal of Carlin” Romano from the board. Romano, whose email responding to the drafting of an anti-racism statement by the NBCC started the […]
People, Etc.
MJ Franklin will move over from social editor at the NYT to join the NYT Book Review this summer as an assistant preview editor. Franklin will help cover literary fiction, memoir and essays, and he will lead their young adult coverage. Aubrey Poole, former editor at the Jimmy Patterson imprint, has joined subscription box service Literati as Acquisitions Editor and Curator for children’s books ages 0-12. Rhodes Murphy has joined the publicity agency Books Forward team as a publicist, and Rachel Hutchings has been hired as a digital marketing strategist. Quarto joined the growing list of publishers making clear they […]
Free Resources: More Updates
We continue to update our sharable, free web pages on resources and measures the publishing community is taking. Keep us up to date with your submissions as you add initiatives and information. In addition to these reference pages, we’ve almost logged a number of updates to our spreadsheet of notable spring pub dates that have changed, arranged by original release date: publun.ch/pubdatechanges. How to help booksellers — and authors [http://publun.ch/supportBooksellers] How educators can get publisher permissions [http://publun.ch/permissions] How students can access educational books for free [http://publun.ch/students] How the industry is aiding booksellers with special terms [http://publun.ch/specialterms]