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Michael Holtmann @michaelholtmann.bsky.social · May 17

"'People in the arts are often the people who speak truth to power,' avows Holtmann."

On what's happening at the NEA—and to cultural life in the U.S. Big thanks to Adam Morgan (@thefrontlist.org) and the Los Angeles Review of Books (@lareviewofbooks.bsky.social).
lareviewofbooks.org/article/we-d...

We Don’t Have Any Reserves | Los Angeles Review of Books

Adam Morgan writes on the impact of Trump’s coup at the NEA for small publishers and literary magazines.

lareviewofbooks.org

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Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · May 8

I wrote about the NEA cuts and that overwhelming feeling when so many different orgs and people need our money. But there are some answers in here too, courtesy of @michaelholtmann.bsky.social and @markkrotov.bsky.social. lithub.com/on-the-lates...

On the Latest Threat to Literary Culture’s Fragile Ecosystem: Donald Trump

There’s an ongoing crisis in book publishing. I mean, there are many, but corporate consolidation is a threat to anyone who cares about books. When there are fewer publishers, both large and small,…

lithub.com

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Michael Holtmann @michaelholtmann.bsky.social · Feb 7

Bananas.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Feb 7

Breaking News: President Trump said he planned to take control of the Kennedy Center and intended to fire several board members and install himself as chair.

Trump Says He Will Install Himself as Kennedy Center Chairman

The move by the president, whose authority to make the changes was not clear, is the latest attempt to bring a Washington institution under his control.

www.nytimes.com

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Michael Holtmann @michaelholtmann.bsky.social · Feb 7

Elvira Navarro, translated by Christina MacSweeney, in Granta.

VOICES OF ADRIANNA is forthcoming from @twolinespress.bsky.social on February 18.

granta.com/images-of-wo...

Images of Women | Elvira Navarro | Granta

‘In the years before his stroke, just how many times had her father told a woman he loved her after dating for two or three weeks?’ Fiction by Elvira Navarro, translated by Christina MacSweeney.

granta.com

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MoMA Paintings and Sculpture @moma.bsky.social · Jan 18

Odilon Redon, Trees in the Blue Sky, c. 1883

https://botfrens.com/collections/14377/contents/1135076

Gift of The Ian Woodner Family Collection

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Michael Holtmann @michaelholtmann.bsky.social · Dec 22

THE YEAR’S BEST HORROR!

Love seeing THROUGH THE NIGHT LIKE A SNAKE and WOODWORM (both from Two Lines Press) in such distinguished company (and in print!) here.

Thanks again, Gabino!

Gabino Iglesias @gabino.bsky.social · Dec 22

I was in California on the 15th, but finally had a chance to sit with the physical paper today. Love the art they made for this. Anyway, my best horror of 2024 (some of it!) in NYT!

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Rabih Alameddine @rabihalameddine.bsky.social · Dec 9

Odilon Redon - Peach, 1901

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Michael Holtmann @michaelholtmann.bsky.social · Dec 2

Ha! Amazing.

Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · Dec 2

Tickled that they went with some random ass photo of another store.

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eileen chengyin chow @chowleen.bsky.social · Nov 28

Best Larkin is not cynical Larkin, imo

—
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.

Philip Larkin, 'The Mower'
#everynightapoem

Also: found poetry at Harris Teeter, spotted by a friend

The Mower
BY PHILIP LARKIN
The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found A hedgehog jammed up against the blades, Killed. It had been in the long grass.
I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:
Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence Is always the same; we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind While there is still time.

“we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time. -Philip Larkin” inscribed on a lemon, found in the grocery store fruit aisle

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CJ Evans @categoryofoutcast.bsky.social · Nov 27

It has been 20 years since Bowker found only 3% of books were translations. Of the 100 “best books” by the ny times this year a whopping… 4 are translated. How far we’ve come.

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Michael Holtmann @michaelholtmann.bsky.social · Nov 27

Breyten Breytenbach. Farewell.

The first time I read it, THE TRUE CONFESSIONS OF AN ALBINO TERRORIST knocked me on my ass.

“They took seven years from him, and he has now struck back with a volume that seems to have been ripped from his entrails.” —J. Lelyveld www.nytimes.com/2024/11/26/w...

Breyten Breytenbach, Dissident South African-Born Writer, Dies at 85

He wrote poetry in Afrikaans and prose in English in his fight against apartheid, an effort that landed him in jail for seven years and in Paris as an expatriate.

www.nytimes.com

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Ilya Kaminsky @ilyakaminsky.bsky.social · Nov 27

Breyten Breytenbach, who will be much missed:

‘History is a succession of things that ought never to have happened, and the writing act is a kind of revenge against it.’

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Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · Nov 25

Adrienne made the books section at Esquire the best one in the business. Heartbreaking to see her and it become a casualty of bad management.

Adrienne Westenfeld @awestenfeld.bsky.social · Nov 25

After nearly nine years at Esquire, I’ve been laid off from my role as Books and Fiction Editor. I’m looking for a new full-time role where I can use my storytelling skills, in the book world or beyond it. If you know of anything, I’m at [email protected]. (🧵1/10)

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David Naimon @davidnaimon.bsky.social · Nov 25

What does it mean that a life can not only be animated by books but destroyed by them? That a self can be not only made by reading, but unmade by it? Dionne Brand returns to BTC to discuss Salvage: Readings from the Wreck
Audio📻🔥: tinhouse.com/podcast/dion...
@fsgbooks.bsky.social

Dionne Brand : Salvage : Readings from the Wreck - Tin House

What does it mean that a life can not only be animated by books but destroyed by them? That a self can be not only made by reading, but unmade by it? Dionne Brand’s latest book of nonfiction Salvage: ...

tinhouse.com

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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · Nov 26

it was radicals who first opened my eyes to how individual acts of repair were not gonna be the ticket. the corporations must be compelled to change. this should be a function of government for the sake of all and we must insist on it. I know this is rather earnest but the need is pressing, urgent.

Margaret Spring @margaretspring.bsky.social · Nov 25

My interview w/ the Associated Press on #PlasticTreaty: We're way past time for addressing this problem. We are not at a sustainable level of production of plastics. Production is mounting, in the last 19 years we've doubled the amount of plastic we've produced. apnews.com/video/pollut...

Nations meet in final round to address global plastic crisis in South Korea

Negotiators gather in Busan, South Korea on Monday in what's billed as a final push to address the global crisis of plastic pollution.

apnews.com

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Frank Wynne @terribleman.com · Nov 24

Optimist: the glass is half full

Pessimist: the glass is half empty

Translator: when you say glass,
are we talking flute, coupe, shot glass, balloon, tumbler, highball, schooner, snifter, tankard?

Florent Moncomble @fmoncomble.tract-linguistes.org · Nov 24

Optimist: the cup is half full

Pessimist: the cup is half empty

Guillaumian linguist: the cup’s potential meaning is a dual movement from full to empty and back. Its effective meaning consists in an interception by the speaker of either movement, yielding a combination of movement and position.

Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · Sep 3

Optimist: the cup is half full

Pessimist: the cup is half empty

Linguist: quantities are described with regard to a reference state; thus we can efficiently convey whether the cup was more recently full or empty

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Michael Holtmann @michaelholtmann.bsky.social · Nov 24

August Wilson forever.

Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · Nov 23

Netflix is so wild to me. There’s a first rate production of August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” starring Samuel L. Jackson, Danielle Deadwyler and John David Washington and I only know about it because of a post on BlueSky.

Like, I’m watching it now while reading along and it’s BRILLIANT.

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Alexis Madrigal @alexis-madrigal.bsky.social · Nov 22

Oakland! Come toast the return of East Baaaayyy Boookseeellleerrrs

www.eventbrite.com/e/a-toast-to... www.eventbrite.com/e/a-toast-to...

A Toast .... to occasion East Bay Booksellers' new temporary location!

We're toasting all that goes into making a good bookstore great.

www.eventbrite.com

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · Nov 21

As you may have heard, from me or whomever else, East Bay Booksellers is reopening. A smaller version of itself, perhaps. But no less for the wear, I suppose. We're toasting to mark the occasion on Saturday, Nov. 30 at 2pm. Swing by, if you're so inclined or available.

A Toast .... to occasion East Bay Booksellers' new temporary location!

We're toasting all that goes into making a good bookstore great.

www.eventbrite.com

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Reposted by Michael Holtmann

Little James Baldwin @nnemmanuels.bsky.social · Nov 21

Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers.

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Min Chao @wordsfromtaiwan.bsky.social · Nov 21

"Taiwan Travelogue follows a fictional 🇯🇵 writer and her relationship with the charming yet closed-off 🇹🇼 woman who serves as her interpreter [...] this novel explores language, politics, and popular culture in 1930s Taiwan, and the shape a cross-cultural friendship takes under the weight of history."

https://www.nationalbook.org/2024-national-book-awards-longlist-for-translated-literature/

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eileen chengyin chow @chowleen.bsky.social · Nov 21

Lovely news! #TaiwanTravelogue, by Yang Shuang-zi (author) and Lin Kin (translator), have won the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature! A first for Taiwan.