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Reposted by Anita Felicelli

Anne Lutz Fernandez @lutzfernandez.bsky.social · 9d

Say it often, say it loud:

"Overall, research has not supported the common-sense presumption that digital approaches to schooling are better than non-digital alternatives. At the broadest level, widespread computer use in education has been found to be associated with lower student achievement."

Fit for Purpose? How Today’s Commercial Digital Platforms Subvert Key Goals of Public Education

Digital educational platforms have become ubiquitous in American classrooms, with tools like Google Workspace for Education, Kahoot!, Zearn, Khan Academy, and many others now structuring curriculum, i...

nepc.colorado.edu

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Rob Rakove @robrakove.bsky.social · 9d

I was honored to have the opportunity to review McNamara at War, the new biography by Philip and William Taubman, for Alta Journal @altajournal.bsky.social. Thanks go to @anitafelicelli.bsky.social

The Price of Loyalty

McNamara at War, a new biography of Robert McNamara, reexamines his culpability in Vietnam.

www.altaonline.com

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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 12d

I spent the summer reporting this essay on why it seems harder than ever to sell a book right now—especially if it isn't a debut and comes with the dreaded "sales track." I'm grateful to the writers, agents, editors, publishers & experts who spoke to me for this piece: thewalrus.ca/the-publishi...

The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem | The Walrus

Companies keep betting on the next bestseller. Literature is poorer for it

thewalrus.ca

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Anita Felicelli @anitafelicelli.bsky.social · 13d

loved the prismatic novel The Wilderness. here's a profile I wrote about author Angela Flournoy in connection with the book. www.altaonline.com/books/fictio...

Why Angela Flournoy Writes About Friendship and Grief

Angela Flournoy discusses how her second novel, The Wilderness, came to be.

www.altaonline.com

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Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 27d

Greg Grandin on 3 notable things about Spanish American independence: It brought about an already socialized community of nations. Its leaders understood their movement as atonement for conquest. They broke free from one empire to confront a new one.

“A Second Enlightenment”: Greg Grandin on Latin America, the United States, and the Creation of Social-Democratic Modernity

“My books try to explain a tension.”

buff.ly

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Bethanne Patrick @thebookmaven.bsky.social · 29d

The only reason to hire a critic, instead of giving a megaphone to the crowd, is that creative work—books most of all—isn’t processed as a collective. People make sense of art as individuals, and their experiences of the work differ individually, too. @nathanheller.bsky.social, @newyorker.com, 2017

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Alvin Lu @alvinlu.bsky.social · Sep 7

Nice evening to drift around North Beach and Chinatown and drop by @citylightsbooks.bsky.social, where copies of Daydreamers are on the shelf.

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Olga Zilberbourg @olgaz.bsky.social · Sep 5

My book came out 6 years ago -- thank you WTAW Press for taking a chance on this collection. It made my world so much bigger and helped me meet so many wonderful people and find community. Huge hugs to all my readers -- forever grateful.

A woman holding a book. On the background: a bougainvillea in bloom and gray sky.

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Grace Loh Prasad @gracelp.bsky.social · Sep 5

Excited for tomorrow’s award ceremony for the Northern California Book Awards! My memoir The Translator’s Daughter is a finalist in creative nonfiction. The event is free and open to the public—come celebrate with us at @sfpubliclibrary.bsky.social in the Koret Auditorium at 2pm

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Anita Felicelli @anitafelicelli.bsky.social · Sep 5

Looking forward to being a part of The Future of California, a @litquake.org
event in Berkeley this weekend 9/7 with Susanna Kwan, @annaleen.bsky.social, @sherijoseph.bsky.social @mikechenwriter.bsky.social and Zoe Young www.eventbrite.com/e/how-they-d...

How They Did It: Imagining a Future California

Litquake and LitCamp gaze beyond the horizon, bringing together five talented authors whose fiction imagines a California of the future

www.eventbrite.com

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Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · Aug 29

🧵 In the wake of numerous reports of interactions with AI chatbots that resulted in deadly consequences, the Center for Democracy & Technology's Dr. Michal Luria says AI firms should stop designing products that pretend to be human.

AI Chatbots Are Emotionally Deceptive by Design | TechPolicy.Press

Chatbots should stop pretending to be human, writes the Center for Democracy & Technology's Dr. Michal Luria.

www.techpolicy.press

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · Aug 31

Why do you appreciate unions?

I’ll start:

Weekends off
Paid vacations
Work breaks
Sick leave
Paid holidays
No child labor
Safer working conditions
Health care and retirement benefits

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Gautam Hans @gshans.bsky.social · Aug 30

This superb interview from @lulugn.bsky.social w/Arundhati Roy emphasizes, with clarity & restraint, how the personal is always political. A quarter century after I read “The God of Small Things” as a South Asian teenager, awed by her gifts, Roy remains an inspiration to me. overcast.fm/+ABOPVmwsQ1c

Arundhati Roy Knows Where America Is Headed — The Interview

The acclaimed writer has a new memoir, and a warning.

overcast.fm

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Hari Kunzru @harikunzru.bsky.social · Aug 28

In a sane world this would be the number one political priority www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Collapse of critical Atlantic current is no longer low likelihood, study finds

Scientists say ‘shocking’ discovery shows rapid cuts in carbon emissions are needed to avoid catastrophic fallout

www.theguardian.com

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Anita Felicelli @anitafelicelli.bsky.social · Aug 27

brilliant essay by Lauren LeBlanc.

Lauren LeBlanc @laurenleblanc.bsky.social · Aug 27

Consider this my belated letter to the editor. I wrote about the legacy of Katrina, the use of criticism, Robert Polidori's images of my destroyed New Orleans neighborhood, and John Updike's review in the New York Review of Books for @oxfordamerican.bsky.social.
oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/what-...

What John Updike Got Wrong about Katrina

oxfordamerican.org

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Kimberly Burns @kimberlyburns.bsky.social · Aug 27

💥💥💥💥💥
2025 Kirkus Prize Finalists are Announced!
💥💥💥💥💥

lithub.com/here-are-the...

Here are the finalists for the 2025 Kirkus Prize.

Today, Kirkus Reviews announced the 18 finalists for the 2025 Kirkus Prize, in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, and Young Readers’ Literature. Finalists are chosen from the pool of writers wh…

lithub.com

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Jason Bailey @jasondashbailey.com · Aug 13

The only remotely wise thing I can say is to directly support outlets that are still writing thoughtful, eloquent criticism. Shell out a few $ for a subscription to those who offer it, hit the free sites with your traffic, share good pieces here and elsewhere. It's a tiny thing, but it's something.

Stephanie Zacharek @szacharek.bsky.social · Aug 13

shrinking. There are enough reasons to be discouraged about the world these days, and Vanity Fair (and WaPo, and the NYT) just keep giving us more. I apologize if you've read this whole thread hoping I have something wise to say, because I don't. I just need to pour my despair somewhere—but also...

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Annalee Newitz @annaleen.bsky.social · Aug 19

What does the future hold for California? On 9/7, six incredible Bay Area authors will speculate and dream. Don't miss this amazing @litquake.org event w/ @mikechenwriter.bsky.social, @anitafelicelli.bsky.social, @sherijoseph.bsky.social, Susanna Kwon, & Zoe Young!
www.eventbrite.com/e/how-they-d...

Liquake and Litcamp present How They Did It: Imagining a Future California. Sun, Sept. 7, 3:00 pm. Mike Chen, Anita Felicelli, Sheri Joseph, Susanna Kwan, Annalee Newitz, and Zoe Young. Link for tickets in post.

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Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · Aug 13

“In [these] accounts, the gap between classes—rarely discussed or even thought about by those on its privileged side—is a chasm that those who have crossed must spend the rest of their lives coming to terms with.”

“I Will Write to Avenge My Race”: Baglin, Louis, and Ernaux on Class Transition

“When people write about the working-class world, which they rarely do, it is most often because they have left it behind,” admits Didier Eribon, in his 2009 French memoir of class transition ...

www.publicbooks.org

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Stephanie Zacharek @szacharek.bsky.social · Aug 13

against the tradition of arts & letters, and against expertise in general—which we're of course seeing everywhere, in science and medicine, in economics, in the study of history, and so forth. Basically, everything that keeps us thinking & human. I had to make my Instagram private years ago...

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Stephanie Zacharek @szacharek.bsky.social · Aug 13

In light of Vanity Fair's recent idiotic decision, WaPo's offering its veteran critic a buyout, the NYT's "reassigning" three arts writers critics, etc., a lot of us are talking about the public's (and thus publications') lack of interest in criticism. It's part of a larger pattern of a war...

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Gautam Hans @gshans.bsky.social · Aug 12

I wrote about one of my all time favorites, Adrian Tomine’s “Shortcomings”, for Alta’s California Book Club. Thank you to @anitafelicelli.bsky.social for excellent editing. It’s a spiky, funny, beautifully drawn graphic novel that’s lost none of its sharpness. www.altaonline.com/california-b...

Sardonic Restraint

In this newsletter, G.S. Hans looks at Adrian Tomine’s Shortcomings, the California Book Club’s August selection, in light of contemporary conversations about Asian American identity.

www.altaonline.com

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Litquake @litquake.org · Jul 25

✨AMUSE-BOUCHE PT II: How They Did It — Imagining a Future California

Join 5 brilliant writers on Sun 9/7 at Page Street Berkeley for a convo on speculative fiction + the future of CA.
🎟️Tickets: bit.ly/44WLT4Z

@mikechenwriter.bsky.social
@anitafelicelli.bsky.social
@annaleen.bsky.social

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Pitchaya Sudbanthad @pitchaya.bsky.social · Jul 23

"Failure of a state to take appropriate action to protect the climate system ... may constitute an internationally wrongful act..."

UN's top court says failing to protect planet from climate change could violate international law

The United Nations’ top court in a landmark advisory opinion says countries could be in violation of international law if they fail to take measures to protect the planet from climate change, and nati...

apnews.com

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Devi S. Laskar @devislaskar.bsky.social · Jul 22

Ty @finishinglinepress.bsky.social My #debut #poetry collection, Self-Portraits Ex Machina, will be released Nov. 2025! gratitude to #EwaChrusciel
@shikhamalaviya.bsky.social
@elizabethrosner.bsky.social
for their many kindnesses 🩷🙏🏽

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