Nabokov on one page, nudes on the next: a Playboy literary editor reveals all

In the wake of Hugh Hefner’s death, the magazine’s former fiction editor shares how she got everyone from Donna Tartt to Margaret Atwood to write for herI am not the only woman who worked at Playboy and kept her clothes on. When I was hired as literary editor in 2005, Hugh Hefner’s basic recipe for the monthly had not changed much since the 1950s: insistent juxtapositions of high and low culture, the ingredients, as he wrote in his 1953 inaugural editorial, for “a quiet discussion on Picasso, Nietzsche, jazz, sex” at a cocktail party.Its DNA was spliced from Esquire’s, where Hefner worked as a young man; but the nudity gave it a daring few magazines had. By the time I arrived it was at once chaste, compared with what was on offer online, and sterile, given to an overabundance of models with big breast implants and big hair. The daring had to be found elsewhere. My task, or so I told myself, was to locate it in the fiction and literary pieces. Related: Effusive Hugh Hefner tributes ignore Playboy founder's dark side Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2017-10-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Here are the winners of the 2023 PEN America Literary Awards.

Last night, the great pens of America convened at The Town Hall in NYC as Kal Penn presided over the 2023 PEN America Literary Awards. For those felled by late-winter viruses who desire to get a taste of proceedings, a recording is available here. Below are this year’s winners: PEN/Jean Stein... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-03-03 16:54:28 UTC ]
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Why one children’s books editor turned down Roald Dahl titles | Letter

Sue Bradley on her conversation with the late Marni Hodgkin about the ‘malicious quality’ to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant PeachRe the letters criticising Roald Dahl’s works (Roald Dahl’s mean and nasty books don’t deserve all this attention, 23 February), in an oral... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-03-01 17:24:42 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #chocolate factory #giant peach #ve read #letters section #books editor


Exclusive cover reveal: See the cover for Athena Dixon’s The Loneliness Files.

Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Athena Dixon’s memoir in essays The Loneliness Files, forthcoming from Tin House this fall. Here’s a bit about the book from the publisher: In Spring 2020, the world as we knew it ground to a halt at the start of the COVID pandemic—streets emptied,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-28 15:00:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #athena dixon #loneliness files #literary hub #tin house #memoir


Exclusive cover reveal: See the cover for Ed Park’s Same Bed Different Dreams.

Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Ed Park’s long awaited second novel Same Bed Different Dreams, which will be published by Random House this fall. Here’s a bit about the novel from the publisher: March, 1919. Far-flung Korean patriots establish the Korean Provisional Government to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-24 15:00:34 UTC ]
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Cover reveal: See the cover for Rachel Eliza Griffiths’s Promise.

Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Rachel Eliza Griffiths’s novel Promise, which Danielle Evans calls “a stunning exploration of the weight and triumph of legacy” and which will be published by Random House in July. Here’s some more about the book from the publisher: The Kindred... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-23 15:00:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #literary hub #random house


Exclusive Cover Reveal: Isle McElroy’s “People Collide”

Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover for acclaimed writer Isle McElroy’s sophomore novel, People Collide, which will be published by HarperCollins this September. When Eli wakes up alone in the cramped Bulgarian apartment he shares with Elizabeth, his more organized and successful... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-02-22 15:10:28 UTC ]
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Literary giants have thoughts on the new edits to Roald Dahl’s works.

The news has rumbled through Giant Country that Puffin has been editing out words like “fat,” “crazy,” and “ugly” from new editions of Roald Dahl’s works. The Daily Telegraph reported that some of the changes achieved a more gender-neutral feel—boys and girls have become “children,” mothers and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-21 15:13:52 UTC ]
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Oni-Lion Forge Names New Editor-in-Chief

As it gradually rebuilds its leadership team, the graphic novel publisher has appointed former Boom! Studios executive editor Sierra Hahn its editor-in-chief. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-02-21 05:00:00 UTC ]
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New Ways to Workshop: A Reading List to Inspire Literary Innovation

In 2016, I was no longer interested in teaching the traditional workshop and felt that my students no longer wanted it. A poet mentioned that in their workshop, they read the poem on the spot and then discuss it together. This was mind-blowing. No reading and re-reading in the week before? No... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-17 09:53:21 UTC ]
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2023 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists Announced

PEN America's Literary Award Finalists have been announced. They include books of by debut writers and well-known writers alike. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-02-16 18:42:50 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #pen america #include books #debut writers #literary award


The Ghostwriter typewriter brings generative AI to the printed page

Running from 1992 through 1995, Ghostwriter, the beloved PBS children’s television show, followed a diverse group of friends as they solved mysteries around their Brooklyn neighborhood with the help of their haunted typewriter, a cursed item possessed by the trapped soul of a murdered runaway... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-02-16 17:00:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #knowledge workers #cloud computing #software engineering #respective fields #digital content


Reykjavik International Literary Festival Names Guest Authors

The 16th edition of Iceland's biennial Reykjavik International Literary Festival has announced its 2023 lineup of authors. The post Reykjavik International Literary Festival Names Guest Authors appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-02-15 08:10:36 UTC ]
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Exclusive cover reveal: See the cover for Lydia Kiesling’s Mobility.

Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for National Book Foundation 5 under 35 honoree and Center for Fiction and VCU Cabell First Novel prize finalist Lydia Kiesling’s second novel, Mobility, which this August will be the first book to be published on the new imprint from Crooked Media,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-13 16:01:46 UTC ]
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Jack Macrae, Former Holt Editor-in-Chief and Respected Publisher, Dies

Macrae, who helmed Holt in the 1980s and was president of Dutton in the 1970s, published Hilary Mantel, Jorge Luis Borges, and others during his illustrious career in publishing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-02-07 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Bedtime Stories From Toni Morrison: Priscilla Gilman on Her Singular Literary Upbringing

Family memoirs are never about one thing. There’s always a compelling domestic story; in her new memoir, The Critic’s Daughter, Priscilla Gilman tells a fascinating story about her dynamic parents and the literary world that they inhabited. But good memoirs always involve a secondary subplot (or... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-06 09:54:35 UTC ]
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Netflix reveals first poster for live-action 'One Piece' coming this year

Netflix's 'One Piece' is based on the popular manga series of the same name by Eiichiro Oda, who is also an executive producer of the show. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-01-30 17:14:27 UTC ]
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Peter Turchi on the Power of the Literary Aside

The following first appeared in Lit Hub’s The Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. William Trevor famously described the short story as “the art of the glimpse,” and compression is generally a virtue. But the most engaging and compelling short stories and novels are not necessarily the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-27 09:52:28 UTC ]
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Victor Navasky, award-winning author and editor of the Nation, dies at 90

Liberal lion won National Book Award and edited leftwing Nation, with writers including Hitchens and Cockburn, from 1978 to 2005Victor Navasky, an award-winning author and journalist who presided over the liberal US weekly the Nation and wrote influential books on the anti-communist blacklist... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-01-25 15:01:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #justice department #national book award #award-winning author


2023 PEN America Literary Awards Longlists

The 2023 PEN American Literary Award Longlists have been announced! This year’s awards will confer $350,000 to more than 100 writers. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-01-23 17:48:28 UTC ]
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A New Way of Being on the Page: A Reading List of Very Short Fictions

Having written and taught short stories for many years, I’ve become increasingly interested in writers who are pushing the edge of how “story” is defined. While “flash fiction” and “micro fiction” are buzzy terms, writing extremely short pieces is nothing new—as I tell my students, Poe did it,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-20 09:53:22 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #flash fiction #micro fiction #short stories