The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing—a charity whose aim is to bring African writing to a wider audience through, among other programming, an annual £10,000 literary award for an exemplary published short story by an African writer—has named Meron Hadero their 2021 winner. Hadero won for her short story “The Street Sweep,” published in ZYZZYVA in 2018. Read more
Month: August 2021
Mel Brooks announces his first memoir at the age of 95
All About Me!, to be published on 30 November, will cover everything from the film director’s military service to his long comedic partnership with Carl Reiner. Read more
If this isn’t the Great American Novel, it’s a mighty attempt at achieving one
A sprawling, ambitious debut novel that is as impassioned in promoting Black women’s autonomy as it is insistent on acknowledging our common humanity. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
A Brief History of Summer Reading
We rarely talk about spring books or winter reading. What is it about summer that inspired a whole genre of its own? Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
The Noosphere Gazette: On Peter B. Kaufman’s “The New Enlightenment and the Fight to Free Knowledge”
Peter B. Kaufman’s rigorous and eloquent new book, The New Enlightenment and the Fight to Free Knowledge, traces the history of this dream of open access to knowledge. It “begins with torture and ends with a vision of another violent civil war. There’s some gun violence, some beheadings, tanks rolling over people, something for everyone.” A recurring problem is the concentration of power. “Archive,” as Kaufman points out, derives from “rule” or “govern,” in the “archon,” the seat of power. Governance and trading require knowledge, so in that sense all economies have been information economies, with all the associated pitfalls. Thus, release of closely guarded information into the public commons is a source of mortal danger to those in power. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
