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Man exonerated in 1981 rape of author Alice Sebold after film project finds discrepancies

A rape conviction at the center of a memoir by award-winning author Alice Sebold has been overturned because of what authorities determined were serious flaws with the 1982 prosecution and concerns the wrong man had been sent to jail. Read more

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PEN International calls on Turkish authorities not to prosecute Nobel laureate Pamuk for his writings

Turkish authorities should not charge Nobel laureate and PEN International Vice President Orhan Pamuk with “insulting” Atatürk and the Turkish flag, PEN International said in a statement on Tuesday, as an investigation has been launched into his novel “Nights of Plague” (Veba Geceleri). Read more

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No Mere Oddity: On Lafcadio Hearn’s “In Ghostly Japan”

BRAM STOKER, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lafcadio Hearn. In this list, Hearn — a contemporary of the other writers — stands out. Unlike the rest, his is no longer a household name. Yet, at the end of the 19th century, he was one of the most well-known authors in the West. “Lafcadio Hearn has been forgotten,” Romanian American poet Andrei Codrescu wrote in 2019, “with two remarkable exceptions: in Louisiana and in Japan.” Read more

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Authors pull out of Frankfurt book fair over presence of far-right groups

At least four writers have pulled out of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the biggest book fair in the world, citing concerns over the presence of far-right publishers. Writer and activist Jasmina Kuhnke, who was slated to make an appearance at the fair Friday to promote her debut novel, “Black Heart,” posted a statement Monday on Twitter saying she decided to withdraw after learning that far-right books were being promoted at the event. Read more

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‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Author Margaret Atwood Faces Backlash for Gender Neutrality Tweet

On Tuesday, Atwood tweeted out an article by Rosie DiManno from Friday’s Toronto Star entitled “Why Can’t We Say ‘Woman’ Anymore?” The opinion piece argues that gender-neutral language, such as “pregnant person,” equates to “an erasure of women” and causes “well-meaning” people to become “tongue-tied, lest they be attacked as transphobic or otherwise insensitive to the increasingly complex constructs of gender.” Read more

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