Wednewsday

You’re half-way there, people!

• Kaveh Akbar becomes poetry editor for The Nation (this is a big deal and should be very good);
• Black crime writers speak out on the challenges they face;
• Friendship books: Facebook, without the Face;
• Someone got a 12-book-deal? WTF?;
• What’s better than a new Elana Ferrante novel? Said novel being read aloud by Marisa Tomei (browr);
• Dan Brown’s life now has more twists than his novels;
• Are you too slow for book clubs? I am… so is this guy;
• On praying for Litterfinger (Trump) to hate, and tweet about, your book;
• Ethan Hawke completes his literary hockey card collection by becoming a literary critic;
• Judge brings down the gavel on ebook piracy operation;
• Old Man Franzen’s advice for whippersnappers is actually pretty good advice regardless of how rambly it is;
• Was accredited douchebag Ayn Rand ever actually a decent writer at times?;
• Academics are getting twitchy about their academic freedom as America marches obliviously toward fascism;
• Is the first novel older than we think?;