Today would have been Toni Morrison’s ninetieth birthday. To celebrate, the New York Times offers guidance on which Morrison books to start with. At Colorlines, author and professor Obery Hendricks remembers Morrison, a friend since the two met in the 1990s at Princeton: “Toni was an international figure fully astride every literary stage of significance and knew it, but other than using her fame as leverage to help others, Toni wore that fame very lightly.” For more Morrison, check out her 2013 appearance at the New York Public Library with Junot Díaz.
Roxane Gay will teach an online MasterClass on writing for social change.
Marc Tracy profiles Stewart Bainum Jr., a hotel executive who has founded a non-profit to buy the Baltimore Sun and two other local papers.
Following the release of the first two episodes in a miniseries highlighting stories of racial discrimination as told by former staffers of Bon Appetit, the host of Gimlet’s Reply All podcast and a senior reporter have apologized for contributing to a “toxic” dynamic at their own workplace. P.J. Vogt and Sruthi Pinnamaneni each made statements late Wednesday addressing their opposition to diversity efforts led by Gimlet’s union. Eric Eddings, a former Gimlet staffer, particularly opposed Pinnamaneni’s framing of the miniseries in light of his experiences with both former colleagues: “They weren’t obligated to support me, diversity efforts at Gimlet, or the union. . . . But it was so triggering to hear the words of people who have suffered like me from people who caused that suffering to me and others.”
The cast for the television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends has been announced. The twelve-part series is scheduled to premiere on Hulu in 2022.
On Thursday, March 4, PEN America and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop will host a conversation between Kazuo Ishiguro and Jia Tolentino about Ishiguro’s latest novel, Klara and the Sun.