Atlantic Books has acquired Namwali Serpell’s next two books: On Morrison, a book-length engagement with the Nobel Prize–winning author, and I Am Dead, a collection of twenty essays. Serpell posted in response to the news, “Delighted about this! There’s no other mind I’d rather spend time with than Toni Morrison’s.” In 2022, Sarah Jaffe talked with Serpell about her novel The Furrows for Bookforum.
The National Book Foundation has revoked Drew Barrymore’s invitation to host this year’s National Book Awards. The foundation cited Barrymore’s decision to resume production of her talk show: “The National Book Awards is an evening dedicated to celebrating the power of literature, and the incomparable contributions of writers to our culture. . . . In light of the announcement that ‘The Drew Barrymore Show’ will resume production, the National Book Foundation has rescinded Ms. Barrymore’s invitation.” The Writers Guild of America has been on strike since May, and according to NPR, Barrymore’s show employs at least three guild members. The foundation will begin announcing the 2023 longlists today.
In Parapraxis, Patricia Ekpo interviews philosopher and artist Denise Ferreira da Silva.
The new issue of the Paris Review is out now with interviews of Robert Glück and Lynn Nottage, an essay by Ishion Hutchinson, stories by Rosalind Brown and Munir Hachemi, and more.
McDowell has announced the latest group of artists to receive fellowships. Writers Jenny Zhang, Mary Gaitskill, Jennifer Krasinski, and Andrew Sean Greer are among the 163 awardees.
On the latest episode of the Ordinary Unhappiness podcast, hosts Patrick Blanchfield and Abby Kluchin talk with Benjamin Wurgaft about puns, dad jokes, and Freud’s unfunny Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious. Wurgaft recently wrote about puns for the TLS: “In the beginning was the word. But the trouble was that the word sounded like other words. And it still does, so you poke at it.”