Jhumpa Lahiri’s Book on Translation Coming in Spring
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri has a new book coming out. Princeton University Press announced earlier today Lahiri’s Translating Myself and Others will be out this spring and will highlight her work as a translator. Lahiri’s new book will feature essays about her experiences translating, the meaning of translation, what it’s like to translate your own writing, and more. “To be a writer-translator is to value both being and becoming,” Lahiri writes in her book. “What one writes in any given language typically remains as is, but translation enables it to become otherwise. Thanks to translation — the act of one text becoming another — the conversation I have been seeking to have with literature for much of my life now feels more complete, more harmonious, and far richer with possibilities.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren Accuses Amazon of Spreading Misinformation About Vaccines
Senator Elizabeth Warren has accused Amazon of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines after the online retail company promoted a book written by an author the New York Times called “the most influential spreader of coronavirus misinformation online.” Warren has written to Amazon’s chief executive Andy Jassy to enumerate her concerns about Amazon’s search algorithms and how they help spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and cures. Warren says she finds it “deeply troubling” that Amazon is “potentially leading countless Americans to risk their health and the health of their neighbors based on misleading and inaccurate information that they discover on Amazon’s website.”
Warren is calling upon Amazon to immediately review its algorithms, report on how often consumers are lead to misinformation, and come up with a plan to modify the algorithms so that they no longer do this.
In a statement to NPR, Amazon said, “we are constantly evaluating the books we list to ensure they comply with our content guidelines, and as an additional service to customers, at the top of relevant search results pages we link to the CDC advice on Covid and protection measures.”
Book Influencer Zibby Owens Launches Zibby Books
Author, book influencer, and podcast host Zibby Owens is launching her own press, Zibby Books, with Leigh Newman, the former books editor at Oprah.com, cofounder of the Catapult imprint Black Balloon, and senior editor-at-large at Catapult. Starting in January 2023, Zibby Books plans to publish one book per month, focusing on “diverse literary voices.”
Indigenous Owned Bookstores You Need to Visit
Let’s keep supporting independent bookstores! Here are Indigenous owned bookstores in the US and Canada that are totally worth a visit.