paper trail

Jan 15, 2013 @ 12:01:00 am

Poet and biographer Lisa Jarnot

On Thursday in New York, translator Susan Bernofsky will give what promises to be a fascinating lecture on Robert Walser’s microscripts at Artists Space Books and Talks.

After penning an essay titled “Why I Hate MFA Programs” five years ago, poet and Robert Duncan biographer Lisa Jarnot explains why she’s accepted a teaching position in Brooklyn College’s MFA program.

Lawrence Wright’s much-anticipated Scientology expose is out this week, and the Los Angeles Times offers an early look at the book, and the religion’s fascination with the cult of celebrity.

Condé Nast has unveiled new contracts designed to co-opt potential movie and TV profits from articles written by freelancers, the New York Times reports. Under several of the contracts viewed by the Times, if Condé Nast options an article, writers will receive at most $5,000 for a one-year option, and “if an article is developed into a major feature film, writers receive no more than 1 percent or $150,000 toward the purchase price.” Writers for places like The New Yorker and Wired have traditionally been allowed to keep the rights to their work in exchange for foregoing basic employee benefits like health insurance, but under the new arrangement, Condé Nast writers might be forced to accept “bottom-of-the-barrel” prices in order to get their pieces run at all.

New York Times media reporter David Carr does a Reddit "ask me anything" in which he airs his fears about the future of the internet: “I'm really worried that we are going to end up in our own verticals of information... I am always struck by the fact if I write something vaguely critical of Jon Stewart, I get emails written in language that makes even me blush, or if I get linked on Drudge, a whole hoard of people come over the hill trying to fill me with ack-ack. No one really wants to talk, no one is really asking a question, they are just telling me what a worthless idiot I am before moving on to the next drive-by.”