Paul Auster, American author of The New York Trilogy, dies aged 77

The writer of The New York Trilogy, Leviathan and 4 3 2 1 – known for his stylised postmodernist fiction – has died from complications of lung cancer

Here, contemporaries pay tribute to his life and work: 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/may/01/a-literary-voice-for-the-ages-paul-auster-remembered-by-ian-mcewan-joyce-carol-oates-and-more

 

Two Poems, four years in 

detention: the Chinese dissident 

who smuggled his writing out of prison

My poems were written in anger after Tiananmen Square. But what motivates most prison writing is a fear of forgetting. Today I am free, but the regime has never stopped its war on words

by Liao Yiwu

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/09/liao-yiwu-chinese-dissident-who-smuggled-his-writing-out-of-prison

  

 

In Praise of Pulitzer Prize-Winner Jayne Anne Phillips

Jonathan Corcoran on the Teacher Who Taught Him That Writing Begins Far From the Page

https://lithub.com/in-praise-of-pulitzer-prize-winner-jayne-anne-phillips/

 

UK audiobook downloads up 17% last year, Publishers Association data shows

Audiobooks are fast becoming ‘a major route to market for consumers of books’, the trade body says

https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/may/07/uk-audiobook-downloads-up-17-last-year-publishers-association-data-shows

 

‘I can say things other people are afraid to’: Margaret Atwood on censorship, literary feuds and Trump

At 84, The Handmaid’s Tale author is as outspoken as ever. She talks about aging, culture wars - and why “the orange guy” can’t be allowed back into the White House 

https://apple.news/AByxML-97ReWHrtx85AoUhQ