Collins editor Adam Bellow’s essay in World Affairs Journal has drawn a number of comments from other quarters, though originally the site only display a short preview. Now the full text is accessible free on the web. His conclusion: “As an editor, I will continue to stand athwart modern liberalism yelling, ‘Stop!’ To that end I will undoubtedly publish the occasional blazing polemic. But I am also cognizant of my role as a senior figure in the conservative movement, with all the responsibilities that entails. I am now approaching the age that Erwin [Glikes] was when he hired me, and […]
Courier Takes Big Charge Against Creative Homeowner
In reporting third quarter fiscal 2008 results, Courier Corporation took a “non-cash impairment charge of approximately $23.9 million related to poor performance at Creative Homeowner,” reporting a net loss of $12.4 million against flat sales of $73.4 million. Creative Homeowner “was especially hard hit in the quarter, experiencing slow sales and higher-than-anticipated returns from retailers due to the continued reduction in store traffic at home improvement centers and other large retail chains. Including the allowance for returns, Creative Homeowner’s third-quarter sales were down 45% from a year earlier. The result was a pre-tax loss of $3.6 million” for the period. […]
Kay Ryan, "Outsider Who Revels in Wordplay," Next Poet Laureate
Winner of “a carriage full of poetry prizes for her funny and philosophical work, including awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1994, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, worth $100,000,” Kay Ryan, 62, will be appointed to succeed Charles Simic as the country’s 16th poet laureate today. (She takes the post in the fall.) NEA chairman Dana Gioia calls her the “thoughtful, bemused, affectionate, deeply skeptical outsider.” Ryan jokes with the Washington Post: “I thought I might take it upon myself to prevent all bad poetry from being published during my reign.” She explains […]
Makinson: Why Are Outsiders Unwelcome?
Penguin Group ceo John Makinson has an essay up at the Bookseller: “It is striking how rarely book publishers take…a gamble on talent from outside the industry. I arrived in book publishing late in my career and was amazed to discover that every other head of house (itself a term that helps to define book publishers as a race apart) had been in the industry for decades. “So, too, had almost everyone else. Across the Atlantic, reservations have been expressed about the appointment of a Bertelsmann executive to the top job at Random House. Well, yes, he may have worked […]
Harris's Departure
E. Lynn Harris is “back after a two-year hiatus with his 10th novel, Just Too Good to Be True. In some ways, the book returns to some of his typical themes — family, relationships, fame — but Harris also takes on new territory, focusing for the first time on a straight relationship. His writing falls into several genres, including gay and lesbian fiction, African American fiction, urban fiction, and so on. And with 4 million copies in print, the books are also best sellers. Harris’ latest book took him four years to write, and while it was a challenge to […]
New Indie Bookstore in Berkshires
“Pittsfield now has its own downtown bookstore. Chapters Bookstore, Inc., a new independently owned bookstore under the management of Aimee McLear, and Kelly Wright,” which opens today. The co-owners “have extensive bookselling and management experience.” The 2,000-square-foot selling space is at 78 North Street.iBerkshires