Welcome back! This week, we dig into some existential book problems: book bans and book excess. How do all these issues affect diverse voices? We’ll talk about it.
Warning: Annie curses in this episode, she can't pronounce "horror."
Our sources for this episode:
· Pritzker (who doesn’t have a starched collar) officially signed a law to force libraries
to comply with new regulations that should make it harder to ban books: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/12/us/illinois-public-libraries-schools-book-bans/index.html
· Responses from some librarians: https://www.news-gazette.com/arts-entertainment/town-hall-should-state-cut-off-funding-to-those-who-ban-books-local-librarians-weigh/article_3df07d1b-c3fb-5f89-ac23-55241797a645.html
· Meanwhile, media jobs being cut left and right: https://www.axios.com/2023/06/13/media-job-cuts-record
· Our episode on the new era of digital media: https://theinksink.substack.com/p/buzzfeed-falls-and-ai-rises
· Book jobs aren’t safe either: https://fortune.com/2023/07/18/penguin-random-house-buyouts-editors-book-publishing-layoffs/
· One major problem with the book business: excess and lack of planning: https://news.yahoo.com/photo-publishing-company-pile-brand-040000727.html
· KKR buys S&S: https://slate.com/business/2023/08/simon-schuster-kkr-private-equity-publishing-consolidation.html
· Our episode on the slow death of local news: https://youtu.be/wXKAPMCHx_E
We recommend supporting diverse authors by buying their books! Here are some collections:
· Books by trans authors (from The Mary Sue): https://bookshop.org/lists/books-by-trans-authors-the-mary-sue
· Books by breakout Latina authors (from Refinery29): https://bookshop.org/lists/books-by-breakout-latina-authors-r29
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