Layoffs Hit HarperCollins
Publishing giant HarperCollins joined the industry-wide restructuring movement on Tuesday, announcing the closing of an imprint and the dismissal of two of its top executives.
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Amazon Unveils Kindle 2
At an elaborate, much-hyped presentation at the Morgan Library in New York City yesterday, Amazon unveiled the Kindle 2, an improved version of its popular e-book reader. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says the upgraded device, which will be available February 24 and will carry a price tag of $359, has more memory, faster page turning, a sharper display, and a longer battery life than its predecessor, which was launched in 2007.
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Senate Votes to Cut Arts From Economic Stimulus Bill
The United States Senate voted on Friday to cut funding for the arts from the economic recovery bill. The amendment to the bill, offered by Republican senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, passed by a wide margin, seventy-three votes to twenty-four. The House of Representatives had approved fifty million dollars in supplemental grants funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) as part of the $819 billion economic stimulus bill put forward by president Barack Obama.
Google Offers More Free Books for Mobile Phones
Google announced last week that it has made available to users of advanced mobile phones an additional five hundred thousand titles from its Book Search digital library.
Director of New York Center for Independent Publishing Loses Job
Karin Taylor, who served for over twenty years as executive director of the New York Center for Independent Publishing, was laid off last week, a move prompted by the deteriorating economy.
Cornell University Library to Release Rare Books Through Amazon
Cornell University Library announced on Tuesday that it will expand its ongoing partnership with Amazon by releasing tens of thousands of rare and, in many cases, out of print books as print-on-demand titles through the online retailer's Web site.
Williams, Whitman, and Fitzgerald Inducted Into New Jersey Hall of Fame
Among the inevitable roster of athletes and entertainers inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame on Monday, three literary luminaries were recognized by the state for their contributions.
Blogger in Brussels Tries to Unite a World of Readers
A blogger in Brussels, Belgium, recently launched a collaborative art project that invites readers to create personalized yet anonymous bookmarks and leave them in random books in locations around the world.
John Updike Remembered
Pulitzer Prize–winning author John Updike had a profound impact on the literary community in the United States and abroad, and many authors, editors, publishers, and readers have come forward to reflect on the prolific writer’s life and work following his death from lung cancer last Tuesday.
An Interview With Writer Robin Romm
What began for Robin Romm as an exercise in navigating the loss of her mother evolved into a memoir, The Mercy Papers: A Memoir of Three Weeks, published this month by Scribner. She recently spoke about transitioning from fiction to nonfiction, and back again, and the difficulty of releasing a memoir into the world.
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