Advertisement

Margaret Atwood Will Not Blurb Your Book, and Other News

By

On the Shelf

Margaret-Atwood-Money-600

  • “I blurb only for the dead, these days.” Margaret Atwood’s form rejection poem
  • For centuries, Beowulf scholars have translated the epic’s opening line as, “Listen!” But now, Dr. George Walkden argues that “the use of the interrogative pronoun ‘hwæt’ (rhymes with cat) means the first line is not a standalone command but informs the wider exclamatory nature of the sentence which was written by an unknown poet between 1,200 and 1,300 years ago.”
  • In the past year, ninety-eight small UK publishers went under, a 42 percent rise from the year prior.
  • We wouldn’t necessarily recommend it, but here is a guide to how to drink like Dorothy Parker.