Zachary Fletcher

The End of Books Coverage at the Washington Post Becca Rothfeld, a former critic at the Washington Post, on the death of the paper’s books section.

“A newspaper is—or ought to be—the opposite of an algorithm, a bastion of enlightened generalism in an era of hyperspecialization and personalized marketing … From now on, the Post will no longer accommodate the admirably omnivorous avidity of its best readers.” www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

WA author's new book highlights hidden voices from the African American past

Clyde W. Ford, author of "A High Price for Freedom," spoke with The Seattle Times about the book’s inspirations, his thoughts on truth and myth and more.

Book details history of the Central District through community stories “Limitless,” edited by filmmaker Jill Freidberg, is a collection of oral histories about the Central District.

NBCC member Zachary Fletcher interviewed Jill Freidberg, editor of "Limitless: Stories from the City that Shaped Seattle," for The Seattle Times:

Writing duo explores the humor, heartbreak of Gen X life in new novel "Run For Your Life, Callie Kingman" is the fifth book by writing duo Alli Frank and Asha Youmans. The "writing soulmates" met while teaching in Seattle.

NBCC member Zachary Fletcher interviewed Alli Frank and Asha Youmans, authors of "Run For Your Life, Callie Kingman," for The Seattle Times:

Learning a laugury about bird augury

Children's book cover of "Good Afternoon Moon" with a clock reading 4:19 p.m. and a window showing the Space Needle next to the moon in the night sky

New Children’s Book ‘Good Afternoon Moon’ Celebrates Seattle’s Painfully Early Sunsets: tinyurl.com/yrze7kp8

Embrace the Big Dark with these 6 books Head somewhere warm and dry with one of these six genre- and tone-spanning recommendations.

new piece up for @seattletimes.com this week, just in time for the Big Dark!

I've put together a list of books best read with rain falling outside and hot tea flowing inside...shoutout to the friend who asked for "winter beach reads" that inspired this.

www.seattletimes.com/entertainmen...

doing a cool thing tonight! I’ll be talking with Maria Reva about her debut novel ENDLING, one of my favorite books of the year. seattle friends: come hang @ Third Place Books, 7pm!!

Story of 'The Sacred Stone Camp' highlighted in new children's book “The Sacred Stone Camp” by Seattle author Rae Rose tells the story of LaDonna BraveBull Allard and the Indigenous resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

www.seattletimes.com/entertainmen...

Seattle writer's debut memoir recounts journey of self-discovery Ito spoke with The Seattle Times about reckoning with her past, the story behind the book's title and complex trauma.

www.seattletimes.com/entertainmen...

Two new pieces up in @seattletimes.com this week!

-I chatted with Shigeko Ito about her debut memoir and how writing is a way to untangle childhood trauma
-Rae Rose's 'The Sacred Stone Camp' tells the story of LaDonna BraveBull Allard organizing against the Dakota Access Pipeline

(links below)

Banksy: Prints by Roberto Campolucci-Bordi, Paul Coldwell Art collector Campolucci-Bordi debuts with a straightforward study of the printed works of street artist Banksy. Known primarily...

wrote my first art book review for PW with BANKSY: PRINTS. this collection brings together the artist's screen prints, many of which first appeared on streets throughout the UK, and dives into the inspiration behind some of Banksy's most iconic works.

www.publishersweekly.com/9780500028582

When Caesar Was King: How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy by David Margolick “For many viewers, Caesar was television,” writes The Promise and the Dream author Margolick in this lively biography of comedia...

WHEN CAESAR WAS KING goes deep into the life of Sid Caesar, a talented comedian who was an early television star and served as an inspiration for future generations of comics.

www.publishersweekly.com/9780805242553

Cover image of THE SUMMER BOOK, by Tove Jansson, Translated by Thomas Teal, Introduction by Kathryn Davis

AUGUST EVERY year, the bright Scandinavian summer nights fade away without anyones noticing. One evening in August you have an errand outdoors, and all of a sudden it's pitch-black. A great warm, dark silence surrounds the house. It is still summer, but the summer is no longer alive. It has come to a standstill; nothing withers, and fall is not ready to begin. There are no stars yet, just darkness. The can of kerosene is brought up from the cellar and left in the hall, and the flashlight is hung up on its peg beside the door. Not right away, but little by little and incidentally, things begin to shift position in order to follow the progress of the seasons. Day by day, everything moves closer to the house. Sophias father takes in the tent and the water pump. He removes the buoy and attaches the cable to a cork float. The boat is pulled ashore on a cradle, and the dory is hung upside down behind the woodyard. And so fall begins. A few days later, they dig the potatoes and roll the water barrel up against the wall of the house. Buckets and garden tools move in toward the house, ornamental pots disappear, Grandmother's parasol and 164 nor tensitory and attractine Ts tic cuinguisher and the ane stored, appear on the veranda. And ar t want kandrape is tansformed. liked th Gandmother had always logus, mast of all, perhaps, maid a place for everything and e Now was the time for the traces of h and, as far as possible, for the islan aal condition. The exhausted Alo with banks of seaweed. The lon and rinsing. All the flowers still or yellow, strong patches of co the woods were a few enorm somed and lived for one day i Grandmothe's legs ached to the rain, and she could much as she wanted to. Bu every day just before dark, picked up everything tha She gathered nails and bi pieces of lumber covere bottle top. She went where everything bur burn, and all the time and deaner, and mor shaking us off, she th Almost.

A (digitally) highlighted passage that reads: “A person can find anything if he takes the time, that is, if he can afford to look. And while he's looking, he's free, and he finds things he never expected.” (p.71)

finally got around to reading Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book. and I’ve somehow managed to finish it on the last day of August, and on the final day in our home before moving out. what a gem!

What is book criticism for? On why thinking of reviews as ads or mere opinions shortchanges literary culture

discovered this piece from @kwistent.bsky.social’s recent (and incredible) post about the true value of book reviews and why they (and books) are more than just ads and products.

open.substack.com/pub/american...

In Defense of the Traditional Review Far from being a journalistic relic, as suggested by recent developments at the New York Times, arts criticism is inherently progressive, keeping art honest and pointing toward its future.

“The heart of the review is emotion, the stirrings of the soul, receptiveness to the life-changing power of art…” @newyorker.com

www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

Federal agents arrest firefighters working on WA wildfire Federal agents showed up northeast of Lake Cushman to check identification of crew members fighting Washington's largest active wildfire.

Federal agents showed up northeast of Lake Cushman to check identification of crew members fighting Washington's largest active wildfire.

A dot plot titled '"nthropomorphized Animals in Popular Children's Books (*Animals That Appear in 10+ Books)" showing the proportion of animals depicted with gendered pronouns. Animals toward the left side are more often represented as male (he/him), and those toward the right are more often represented as female (she/her). Birds, ducks, and cats lean female. Bears, monkeys, dogs, elephants, foxes, wolves, and frogs lean male. Each animal is represented by a colorful, illustrated face.

Screenshot of Publishers Weekly article titled "The Sneaky Gender Bias in Picture Books: Animal Characters" that includes photo of the author, a woman with brown hair and glasses. Text reads: "Melanie Walsh is an assistant professor in the Information School and an adjunct assistant professor in the English department at the University of Washington. She uses data to analyze contemporary culture, especially literature and publishing. She is currently at work on a book, When Postwar American Fiction Went Viral: Protest, Profit, and Popular Readers in the 21st Century, which follows the surprising social media afterlives of five iconic American authors. Here she shares her investigations into the subtle gender imbalance often at play in picture books featuring animal characters. I recently published a data analysis with The Pudding, a digital publication known for data-driven storytelling, about animal characters in picture books. We read approximately 300 popular English-language picture books from the past 70+ years and noted the gender of any anthropomorphized animal character that was important to the story. We found that male animal characters were twice as common as female characters across all the books. Some strong animal stereotypes also emerged: frogs and dogs were boys; birds and cats were girls. Even more surprising, according to our data: this disparity is not obviously improving, even over the last 25 years."

For PW, I wrote about the persistent gender gap in fictional animal characters—a pattern I noticed while analyzing 100s of picture books with @puddingviz.bsky.social.

It's a more interesting (and pervasive) problem than I first thought.

#kidlit #booksky

🔗: www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

A stack of books that includes: There Are Reasons for This, by Nini Berndt; Backhanded Compliments by Katie Chandler; Colored Television by Danzy Senna; and Love Is A War Song by Danica Nava.

the fam saw my @seattletimes.com beach reads piece and took notes for our trip 😍 from the library to boot!!!

Dove: "Dedication" A poem by Rita Dove: "Ignore me. This request is knotted — / I'm not ashamed to admit it."

“What are music or books if not ways / to trap us in rumors? The freedom of fine / cages!”

yalereview.org/article/rita...

Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist by Daniel Pollack-Pelzner In this comprehensive debut biography, Portland State University theater professor Pollack-Pelzner pulls back the curtain on son...

In LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA: THE EDUCATION OF AN ARTIST, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner gives the story-behind-the-story of Miranda’s rise to fame. This reads as an affectionate biography of Miranda’s upbringing and explores how his art (Hamilton, Moana etc.) came to life.

www.publishersweekly.com/9781668014707

Relive the Legion of Boom era with Seattle journalist's new book “The Franchise: Seattle Seahawks: A Curated History of the Legion of Boom Era” by Seattle writer Michael-Shawn Dugar collects stories from the team's LOB days.

next piece is up for @seattletimes.com — it’s all about Seahawks football and why the Legion of Boom era is so special!

www.seattletimes.com/entertainmen...

Relive the Legion of Boom era with Seattle journalist's new book “The Franchise: Seattle Seahawks: A Curated History of the Legion of Boom Era” by Seattle writer Michael-Shawn Dugar collects stories from the team's LOB days.

“The Franchise: Seattle Seahawks: A Curated History of the Legion of Boom Era,” by Seattle writer Michael-Shawn Dugar, collects stories from the team's LOB days.

New book offers behind-the-scenes look at the making of ‘Born to Run’ "Tonight in Jungleland" covers the years Springsteen and his band spent writing and recording the record, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in August.

new @seattletimes.com piece up!

I chatted with Peter Ames Carlin about his new book on Springsteen and the making of “Born to Run.” you could listen to the album…or read the book (out from @doubledaybooks.bsky.social 8/5)!

www.seattletimes.com/entertainmen...

Every Day Is Sunday: How Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft, and Roger Goodell Turned the NFL into a Cultural & Economic Juggernaut by Ken Belson New York Times reporter Belson (Hello Kitty) offers a candid history of how NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Dallas Cowboys owner...

EVERY DAY IS SUNDAY goes behind the NFL machine and looks at how it became so profitable -- in both an economic and cultural sense. sundays have never been the same, and Ken Belson shows us why.

www.publishersweekly.com/9781538772553

Be Like Bruce: PW Talks with Jeff Chang In Water Mirror Echo (Mariner, Sept.), the journalist tells the story of actor and martial artist Bruce Lee’s rise to fame alongside the cultural history of Asian America.

here's my convo with the great Jeff Chang about the book! ->

www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

New puzzle book from Ken Jennings prompts readers to make 'Kennections' The Seattleite spoke with us to discuss writing over 1000 Kennections puzzles, interacting with the community of solvers and growing up in a games household.

Ken Jennings spoke with us to discuss writing over 1000 Kennections puzzles, interacting with the community of solvers and growing up in a games household.

New puzzle book from Ken Jennings prompts readers to make 'Kennections' The Seattleite spoke with us to discuss writing over 1000 Kennections puzzles, interacting with the community of solvers and growing up in a games household.

next up for @seattletimes.com: Ken Jennings! I spoke to the one and only Jeopardy host/champion about his daily puzzle diet and how it feels to run a puzzle named after yourself (to be clear: Ken told me he doesn't like the name 'Kennections'). Happy puzzling!!

www.seattletimes.com/entertainmen...

First Water Mirror Echo review is in!

“Chang persuasively argues that Lee’s presence on screen helped shape the idea of what it means to be Asian in America. This definitive account cements Chang as a preeminent chronicler of Asian American history.”

On sale 9/23. Preorder now! watermirrorecho.net