A history of the dollar-a-word rate: At Medium, Malcolm Harris writes about the declining rates—in real dollars—of freelance writing. It’s an interesting piece but a little long on nostalgia (things were not that great for all writers in the 1950s and 60s) and short on the reality of today’s market. Most publishers are not nefariously taking advantage of cheap talent to cash in, as Harris seems to suggest at one point. They are just trying to stay alive.
Why does dark matter seem to emit a small signal? Nobody knows.
More bizarre science news: Meteorites with diamonds may be from a proto-planet from the early years of the solar system.
Alex Hawgood profiles the Instagram poet Cleo Wade: “Pouring herself a second cup of turmeric-infused ginger tea, Ms. Wade apologized for feeling tired. She had spent the previous night in a floral Erdem gown at the New Museum, where she hosted a book party with old classmates from elementary school and newer pals like Elaine Welteroth and Prabal Gurung. ‘If people treat Heart Talk less like a book and more like a best friend, I would really like that,’ said Ms. Wade, 29, who has a mop of springy caramel-hued hair and an enviable closet of Gucci and Stella McCartney …”
The heart of Queen Anne of Brittany, which is encased in gold, has been stolen. “Robbers broke in through a window of the Thomas-Dobrée museum in the western French city of Nantes during the weekend. They got away with the 6-inch oval case despite setting off an alarm.”
Terry Teachout on the return of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: “Taken together, the two parts of Angels in America—running seven-and-a-half hours in all—were widely thought to constitute the most important American play of the late 20th century. Now it has returned to Broadway in a production from the National Theatre in London, where it was greeted with near-universal acclaim, much of it from critics who were not yet born when the real-life events depicted by Kushner took place.”
Essay of the Day:
In The New Statesman, Fiona Sampson writes about how small presses like Enitharmon have made a big difference in British letters:
“Editors like Enitharmon’s founder Alan Clodd, who ran the press for 20 years, and his gifted successor Stuart-Smith, act as both acute literary minds and as entrepreneurs. They present readers with established giants while also mentoring home-grown talent. Early, Enitharmon published Federico García Lorca, Jorge Luis Borges and David Gascoyne; as well as much from Kathleen Raine, who had encouraged the press’s foundation. The list has remained markedly cosmopolitan. This tendency for independent publishers to brave the commercial risks associated with translation means that they become the go-to lists for adventurous readers.
“But Enitharmon has also supported an exceptional number of important British and Irish poets at all stages in their careers. To browse The Heart’s Granary is to realise again what a mighty body of work, solo and collective, 50 years of the press represents. Here are Dannie Abse, Fred D’Aguiar, Simon Armitage, Ronald Blythe, Alan Brownjohn, Frances Cornford, C Day Lewis, Douglas Dunn, Ursula Fanthorpe, Thom Gunn, David Harsent, Lee Harwood, Geoffrey Hill, Ted Hughes, Frances Horovitz, Michael Longley, John Montague, Paul Muldoon, Pascale Petit, Robin Robertson, Benjamin Zephaniah… not to mention four Nobel laureates: Beckett, Heaney, Pinter and Tranströmer. Even this roll-call of ‘headliners’ – just a small proportion of the poets Enitharmon has published down the years – gives a sense of the tremendous range of work the press has nurtured.”
Photos: Oklahoma wildfire
Poem: David Livewell, “Summer Elegy”
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