Morgan Leigh Davies

Godspeed friend. Jfc

Dear god this is all so dark. (He was basically a nonentity to me before this recent mess.)

Incredible! Can’t wait to read!

We will be publishing cultural criticism every day at The Rumpus. We hope to fill some of this egregious void being created by the mainstream media. Relaunch is in October but we are also publishing between now and then.

Professional criticism is not the same as individual reviews. They can both be useful but criticism is a skill-based genre like any other writing. The yelpification of criticism isn’t evolution.

someone else will have to come up with actual numbers, but losing book reviews from the AP means losing them from all the local papers that already aren’t paying critics to write reviews directly for them

The devaluation of skill, experience, and expertise is a crisis across cultural journalism right now--it's being felt profoundly in theater. It's great that anyone can post a review, but that does not, even in the smallest way, replace what's being thrown away.

It's profoundly saddening to read that AP will no longer be assigning or running book reviews because readers don't engage with them enough and they take too much effort to plan and assign. People complain about critics as gatekeepers; wait until all that's left is marketing.

Between a "No Other Land" crew mate filming himself being killed by a settler, to a journalist being killed by airstrikes he was covering minutes earlier, I'm not sure how much more televised Israel's genocide can be

Anas al-Sharif among five Al Jazeera journalists killed by Israel in Gaza Al Jazeera staff killed in targeted Israeli attack on a tent housing journalists near al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza City.

I do not find this on home pages of the NYT, WaPo, WSJ; only a small headline on The Guardian. A journalist has been murdered. Where is the outrage--about anything?
Anas al-Sharif among five Al Jazeera journalists killed by Israel in Gaza aje.io/0pa37x via @AJEnglish

scabs both 🚮

William F. Buckley Jr. Stamps | USPS.com Honor one of the most influential public intellectuals in modern U.S. history with the William F. Buckley, Jr. Forever® stamp.

No idea how long this was in the works, but the USPS is issuing stamps featuring a guy who wrote an opinion piece defending Jim Crow because “the White community is so entitled because for the time being, it is the advanced race.”

absolutely agree

I moved into mine 11 years ago and I would have left years and years ago if not for this. Just nonsense to go after this.

Like obviously I am in a uniquely bad position due to long COVID but if you actually know anything about the NYC rental market you would understand that unless you work on Wall Street, basically, rent is punitive.

Almost like Cuomo doesn't live here or know anything!!

Just to add my 2¢, rent stabilization is the only thing that makes it possible for me to still live in NYC (and even that is stretching it), and everyone I know who managed to land one even if they have decent jobs etc feels pretty similar because NYC rent is out of control.

Landlords have been trying to kill rent stabilization for years, including via the Supreme Court. Claiming that people who make upper-middle income AT BEST are "cheating the system" (when they are not) could have a harmful impact.

I said this on the other site (sorry) but: Something particularly bad about that Cuomo post is that it's spreading a lot of misinformation about NYC housing policies and I worry that it will turn people who don't live here against rent stabilization, which is a lifesaving program for so many NYers.

(We know Dinan was on the jury for the first book prize because she announced she withdrew but that’s the only info I’ve seen anywhere.)

Has anyone managed to work out who was actually on the panel who picked this list? I haven’t been able to find the names of the judges anywhere which feels very convenient given the justified outrage.

the Polari Prize First Book longlist, with Jason Okundaye, Sacha Coward, Amy Twigg, Mae Diansangu and Ciara Maguire crossed out as they've withdrawn

The Polari Prize Longlist with Rhian Elizabeth crossed out as she's withdrawn

New update on author withdrawals from the Polari Prize in protest of the inclusion of a proud transphobe

From the First Book longlist: Jason Okundaye, Sacha Coward, Amy Twigg, Mae Diansangu, Ciara Maguire

From the main award longlist: Rhian Elizabeth

what is the WTA even for if they will overturn their own suspension of an abuser. how can they claim to be protecting players if they will renege on these decisions. shameful

horrendous

GODDDDD

I am incandescent with fury and disgust

Here's the truth.

You can't stand with trans people and take a gig with Rowling. It is impossible. You can make donations, you can issue statements of support, but at the end of the day you are choosing to work with the single most prominent transphobe who uses her money and platform to harm us.

An article in The Guardian describing letters written to Jefffrey Epstein in 2016, eight yesrs after he pleaded guilty to sex crimes: In a letter from film-maker Woody Allen, Allen reminisced about Epstein's dinner parties at his Upper East Side townhouse and described the gatherings as "always interesting". He noted that the parties included "politicians, scientists, teachers, magicians, comedians, intellectuals, journalists" and "even royalty" Allen also described the dinners as "well served": "I say well served - often it's by some professional houseman and just as often by several young women" who he said reminded him of "Castle Dracula where Lugosi has three young female vampires who service the place."

But of course.

I also know plenty of people who have decided not to visit despite previous plans to do so. And that’s just anecdotal data…

As someone who used to work at a rare book dealer… god I would love to know more about this too

+1