S. Zainab would like to think she bleeds ink but the very idea makes her feel faint. She writes fantasy and horror, and is currently clutching a manuscript while groping in the dark. Find her on Twitter: @szainabwilliams.
Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
9 Artists on How Censorship Impacted Their Work
The New York Times Style Magazine spoke with nine artists about how American censorship has impacted their work. From filmmaker John Waters (Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America, here talking about his film work) to author Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner) to artist Kate Bornstein (Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us), censorship has led to underground activities, history-making lawsuits, defunding, and, to the chagrin of censors, wider success and acclaim. Hosseini had this to say:
I came to this country in 1980 and, in these book bans, I don’t recognize the America my father talked about, the reasons he went through the trouble of bringing us here. But they haven’t hurt me or benefited me much personally, apart from giving me the touch of pride I feel at being censored alongside people like Toni Morrison and Margaret Atwood — and if I’m being targeted by groups with little tolerance for diversity of perspective, I’ve done something right.
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A Summer Game Worth Reading About
Games and libraries! What a winning combination, and Ann Arbor is doing it right with The Summer Game. No, The Summer Game is not a middle grade mystery lifted from the periphery of your childhood memories, it’s an annual game put on by the city’s public library system that has 16,000 active players. Convincing that many people to do anything other than sit in front of the A/C over the summer is impressive, but this reading challenge both appeals to contemporary humankind’s instinct to gamify everything and broadens its reach by focusing on exploring rather than simply reading. It’s a win-win with patrons discovering what the library can do for them beyond offering books and the library seeing those resources actually get used. The best part? The Summer Game’s code is open access and available to any library.
Speaking of Games…
Round up your Fourth Wing friend group because Hasbro created a game based on Rebecca Yarros’s epically popular Empyrean Series. The literary edition of their existing game, Priorities: A Party Game of Absurd Choices, sets players up to rank characters, scenarios, and more from a story rich with gaming fodder. Yarros herself worked with Hasbro to create the game, which isn’t out until October but is available for pre-order now.
11 of The Best New Books of August in Every Genre
We’ve got even more new books to put on your reading list this summer, and there’s something for every reader. Find must-read new releases in horror, fantasy, literary fiction, nonfiction, and more.
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