 Knopf (1981); Inflation data source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (The Washington Post) | The U.S. inflation rate hasn't run this high since John Updike published "Rabbit Is Rich." That news probably makes you feel less rich, but consider what a bargain books have remained over the last four decades. In 1981, Updike's celebrated novel, set during an era of double-digit inflation, sold for a retail price of $13.95. Today, a new literary hardback sells for about twice that, which works out to an annual increase of just 1.7 percent. You'd have been better off investing in those Krugerrands that Rabbit used as sex toys. (Maybe not those exact Krugerrands, but you know what I mean.) If inflation has left book-buyers relatively unscathed, it's been much harder on publishers and bookstores. Maria Pallante, the president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, tells me, "Publishing houses are absorbing daunting cost increases from every direction, including paper, printing, shipping and transportation." (5 charts explain why inflation is at a 40-year high.) Pallante points out that publishers can't easily adjust prices the way a shoe manufacturer might. "The list price is the basis of how many contracts and receipts are calculated," she says, "so the publishers tend to weigh the timing of any necessary adjustments with great care, great consideration for how those changes would affect their industry partners." What's more, we're talking about works of art or scholarship that have, in many cases, taken years to create. "Publishers hold books in trust for their authors," Pallante says, "and the list price is a key part of giving any particular book its best shot to be successful." A price increase could adversely affect the sales of "a book that's already in production or already in a warehouse." Booksellers find themselves similarly constrained. Bradley Graham, co-owner of Politics and Prose here in Washington, tells me, "Inflation leaves us caught in the middle and really squeezes us. That's because as our costs go up, our book prices tend to increase more slowly and aren't even controlled by us. They're set by publishers. It's a tough position to be in." Kyle Burk, co-owner of Capitol Hill Books in Washington, has more pricing power because he sells mostly used books. But he notes that "it takes quite a bit of hustle to track down good used books so we're on the road a lot – that means high gas prices cut into our bottom line a bit." And he speculates that the money readers are paying for everything else leaves them less to spend on books. Please, people, keep your priorities straight. We can go grocery shopping after we get to the last page.  Captured in infrared light by NASA's new James Webb Space Telescope, this image of a region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth. (Image Credit NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI) | Speaking of 1981, one of the most popular books that year was "Cosmos," by Carl Sagan. The best-selling science title launched Americans into a universe of wonder (review). We're back there again this week looking at the awesome images taken by the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope. NASA revealed photos of the Southern Ring Nebula, a galactic nursery for new stars and a patch of darkness thick with galaxies. Capable of picking up light that's been piercing toward us for more than 13 billion years, the new telescope can peer back to the origins of our universe. Equally miraculous, some enterprising indie publishers are already selling "books" containing images taken by the Webb telescope. (NASA images are generally in the public domain and not subject to copyright.) You can find composition notebooks and editions of President Biden's Monday presentation. As always: When drifting in this dark corner of the publishing universe, beware. For instance, "James Webb Space Telescope images: nasa james webb," by Ralph Carl, is a disappointing little thing that contains badly reproduced photos spread over a few dozen pages. The introduction is largely lifted without attribution from a recent NPR report. (I bought the Kindle version for $9.99 so you don't have to.) Astronomy enthusiasts should wait for upcoming issues of National Geographic and other magazines that will surely publish gorgeous features dedicated to the Webb telescope images. Professionally produced photobooks should follow. And for background on this remarkable mission, check out NASA's free e-book titled "James Webb Space Telescope: Science Guide." There's an interactive version for the iPad and a PDF version for any computer (details). "What an astonishing thing a book is," Sagan once wrote. "A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic." Movies based on two extraordinarily popular novels have inspired intense criticism this week. The adaptation of Delia Owens's "Where the Crawdads Sing" – produced by Reese Witherspoon and starring Daisy Edgar-Jones – opens in theaters today (review). But response to the movie has been eclipsed by controversy around the novelist. According to Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, Owens is wanted for questioning in Zambia about the killing of an alleged poacher in 1995. Goldberg has been covering this situation for years, and his newly updated story is deeply disturbing.
"Good manners are essential," Mr. Elliot says in "Persuasion," but critics of the new movie adaptation of Jane Austen's novel have set courtesy aside. Behold this delicious gallery of irritation: - Los Angeles Times: "Persuasion . . . appears to have lifted sentences from the novel and fed them through some kind of Instagram-filtering, catchphrase-generating, text-summarizing idiot bot."
- Entertainment Weekly: "This Persuasion chooses to wear its source material like a thin disposable skin, discarding many of the vital organs (brain, heart) and most ideas of subtlety as it goes."
- The Guardian: Director Carrie Cracknell demonstrates "so little sensitivity to the delicate precision of Austen's writing that you wonder why she didn't just go the whole hog and bung in some comedy trombone quacks and an audience laugh track."
- The Independent: "It's as if someone tried to recreate Emma from memory, but they'd only watched the film on a plane, and while the plane was experiencing extreme turbulence."
- Daily Mail: "This groan-worthy Jane Austen outing is torture."
In a more reflective mood, "Post Reports" host Martine Powers asks, "Why is 'Persuasion' — Austen's long-overlooked and underappreciated final novel about a regretful almost-spinster — suddenly having a moment?" (the answer).  Courtesy of America's Next Great Author © 2022. | "America's Next Great Author" sounds like a gonzo satire, but apparently it's going to be a real thing – or at least what passes for real in the realm of reality TV. The upcoming show comes from Arielle Eckstut and David Sterry, the self-described Book Doctors who help writers hone their pitches into delectable nuggets of persuasion that publishers can't resist. I witnessed their manic Pitchapalooza about 10 years ago at Politics & Prose. A series of would-be authors got one minute to pitch their book proposals. That night the winning story idea was about a sociopathic plastic surgeon who cuts off the limbs of people suffering from body integrity identity disorder. Sterry advised marketing the book as "Henrietta Lacks" meets "Running with Scissors." Now this literary version of "American Idol" is coming to the small screen, where contestants need a book pitch instead of perfect pitch. The show's YouTube announcement gives off a zany summer camp vibe, but Eckstut and Sterry have managed to enlist the immensely likable best-selling author Kwame Alexander as the show's host, along with Jason Reynolds, Angie Goff and Marga Gomez as the judges. The show's website explains that the plan is to gather "six charismatic finalists from vastly different places and backgrounds" and put them together in a retreat for "a month of live-wire challenges and spectacular storytelling." During those 30 days, the writers are expected to start and finish their books. Everyone who succeeds will be named a winner and receive an advance and a publishing contract. "It's a show whose mission is to elevate writers, not use them," Eckstut tells me. "We want it to be a supportive environment without the 'Survivor' element." I suppose this isn't the most dubious set-up for a reality TV show, particularly if judged against, say, "Whisker Wars" about competitive facial hair growing. But "America's Next Great Author" is still problematic. Cloistering six authors together for a month of "live-wire challenges" sounds like a seminar at the Iowa Writers' Workshop led by Lex Luthor. There's also the inanity of presuming that a book should be written in 30 days or that a writer should be charismatic. (That widespread presumption has done much to warp our literary culture.) But hey, Eckstut and Sterry are forces of nature, and maybe I'm just bitter that I didn't think of that story about the limb-lopping plastic surgeon. If you've got a book in you, sign up for a casting call and more information here. The pilot episode will be filmed in San Francisco this fall. The winner gets $2,500 and possibly a path to literary fame.  The 2022 Library of Congress National Book Festival returns to the Washington Convention Center this Labor Day weekend with more than 100 authors, poets and writers celebrating the festival theme, "Books Bring Us Together." (Courtesy of the Library of Congress) | Yesterday, the Library of Congress released details about the National Book Festival at the Washington Convention Center on Sept. 3. This will be the first time the festival has been in person since 2019. The schedule – from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. – features more than 100 writers, including Geraldine Brooks ("Horse"), Clint Smith ("How the Word Is Passed") and Candice Millard ("River of the Gods"). As always, the festival will also offer great presentations for children and teens. They can look for Marc Brown, Jason Reynolds, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas and many more favorites. Celebrities Nyle DiMarco and Nick Offerman will be on hand to talk about their new memoirs. A new stage called "Pop Lit" will feature Mitch Albom and other best-selling writers. Genre readers will be happy to know that the stage for Science Fiction & Fantasy is back. Romance, though, is gone. (Stop that metaphor!) I'm curious to hear the performers at a new feature presented by popular audiobook narrators. And a group called Literature to Life will offer staged adaptations of classic American titles. All the guest authors will be on hand to sign copies of their books, which you can buy at the Politics and Prose pop-up store in the convention center. (You can bring your own copies, too.) The festival is free and open to the public. Covid safety protocols will be announced closer to the date. If you can't attend in person, some events will be livestreamed, and videos of all the presentations will be available online after the festival (details).  The 2022 Booker Prize judges: (l-r) historian Helen Castor; novelist, poet and professor Alain Mabanckou; writer and broadcaster Neil MacGregor (chairman); novelist and critic M. John Harrison; academic and broadcaster Shahidha Bari. (Photo courtesy of Booker Prize Foundation) | The Booker Prize is trying to have it both ways. Almost 10 years ago, Britain's most famous literary contest began accepting submissions from American fiction writers. But this week, the Booker Foundation struck a surprisingly parochial note. "Calling all book clubs!" the announcement says. "Does your book club think it has what it takes to be Booker Prize judges – and would you like to be in with a chance to attend this year's Booker Prize ceremony? We'd love to hear from you!" But it turns out that "all book clubs" means all book clubs in the United Kingdom. The new Booker Prize Book Club Challenge will select six U.K. book clubs "to help rate and review the 2022 shortlist." The judges are looking for "the most interesting, passionate and wide-ranging set of readers possible, as well as those who will shout the loudest about this year's Booker Prize shortlist on social media to help encourage even more people to pick up those books." Two members from the most original and engaging book club will be given an all-expenses paid trip to the 2022 Booker Prize ceremony in London this fall (entry details). Well, I say, that's a load of tosh. If American authors are good enough to compete in the Booker Prize, American readers are good enough to compete in the Booker Prize Book Club Challenge.  The 2022 Whiting Literary Magazine Prize winners (Courtesy of the Whiting Foundation) | Dawn and I currently subscribe to more than three dozen magazines, which is about two dozen more than we can actually read each month. But even that absurd surfeit of paper doesn't quell my excitement for the annual Whiting Literary Magazine Prizes. The judges always manage to highlight a few great titles I've never heard of. In addition to cash awards of various amounts, the Whiting Foundation also offers these winning publications expert advice about fundraising and marketing. (You can help, too, by subscribing.) This year's winners, along with the judges' praise and prize amounts, were announced yesterday: - American Chordata (Brooklyn), "a budding independent magazine full of thought-provoking interplay between text and visual art – a careful assemblage of young writers and artists alongside recognized talents" ($15,000).
- Apogee (New York), "an incubator for multicultural writers with a finger on the pulse of the literary landscape and an established reputation for publishing stellar up-and-comers" ($19,500).
- Bennington Review (Bennington, Vt.), "a relaunch of an eminent university publication – a visually stunning journal with an imaginative and sophisticated vision that offers hands-on experience to the next generation of editors" ($30,000). (During the 1980s, I published a short story in a previous iteration of this journal under the editorship of Nicholas Delbanco.)
- Electric Literature (Brooklyn), "a buzzing concourse for news and ideas publishing compelling essays, short stories with insightful context, and incisive critical coverage of the literary world" ($19,500). (EL was co-founded by Andy Hunter, the force behind Bookshop.org, the Amazon alternative for fans of indie bookstores.)
- ZYZZYVA (San Francisco), "a stalwart West Coast publication with national reach, an exquisitely curated reading experience, and top-notch design" ($60,000). (I just received the latest issue – focused on poetry – which includes poems by Carl Phillips, an interview with Matthew Zapruder and an essay by Victoria Chang.)
 If you want to read Sandra Cisneros's classic book "The House on Mango Street," please buy a copy or check it out from a real library. (Vintage; photo illustration by Ron Charles/The Washington Post) | An exasperating battle over copyright may finally be nearing its end. For several years, a San Francisco group called the Internet Archive has scanned books, uploaded the content and allowed users anywhere to access those digital files. The group calls its practice "fair use." Publishers call it "stealing." (Note: Your public library typically doesn't scan a book and then lend out its own electronic file. Instead, the library pays a publisher for a digital license, which tightly controls how many times and for how long an e-book can be checked out.) Last week, a group of plaintiffs that includes Hachette, HarperCollins, John Wiley and Penguin Random House, filed a request for summary judgment in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs reiterated their claim that the Internet Archive "freerides on the authors' literary contributions and aggressively competes with the Publishers' authorized digital works by republishing its own unlicensed e-books" – tens of thousands of them, representing millions of lost sales. The suit argues that this practice "would be disastrously compounded if IA's activities became unrestricted and widespread." Unfortunately, the Internet Archive has become a rallying cry for certain webby libertarians who imagine that information – other people's property – wants to be free. And a few zealots are resorting to the most vile methods to support their cause: One best-selling science fiction author has received multiple death threats inspired, apparently, by a comment he made that some IA enthusiasts consider offensive. Although this writer has no connection to the IA lawsuit, he asked that I not use his name here because "any continued vocalization on my part seems to only kick over the wasp nests." Meanwhile, Sandra Cisneros is charging toward those wasp nests wielding a flamethrower. The author of "The House on Mango Street" and other best-selling books submitted a powerful personal statement to the court in support of the request for a summary judgment against IA. "I am a woman of color who comes from working class roots, but my father – who was an upholsterer – taught me about craft and taking pride in what I make," she writes. "I worked hard to earn the financial security that I now have and which enables me to earn a living from my pen without fear of poverty." "When I went on the Internet Archive's website and saw that scans of my books were being distributed to anybody who wanted them for free – without my permission or any payment – I was appalled," Cisneros tells the court. "It was like I had gone to a pawn shop and seen my stolen possessions on sale." Think you can rip off Sandra Cisneros with impunity? Think again.  Ada Limón has been named the 24th U.S. poet laureate. (Shawn Miller/Library of Congress via AP) | Two poetry developments of note: - Ada Limón has been named the 24th poet laureate of the United States (story). Limón is not only an exceptionally fine writer, she's a terrifically gracious ambassador for poetry – the kind of artist who can challenge a phalanx of scholars one day and enchant a classroom of children the next. She's the author of six collections, including "The Carrying" (2018), which won a National Book Critics Circle Award and was one of The Washington Post's top five poetry collections of 2018 (full list). Her podcast, "The Slowdown," is a daily touch of poetic inspiration we all need (listen). I interviewed Limón for Life of a Poet in 2019 (video), and an excerpt from her latest book, "The Hurting Kind," ran in this newsletter in May (here). She will officially start her one-year appointment with a public reading at the Library of Congress on Sept. 29.
- Carmen Giménez will be the next executive director and publisher of Graywolf Press, succeeding the legendary Fiona McCrae. Graywolf is a small Minneapolis publisher that's been punching above its weight for decades – earning Pulitzers, Bookers and National Book Awards. Most significantly, it's become one of the country's finest publishers of poetry, which is no doubt what attracted the house to Giménez, who is a celebrated poet in her own right. Her sixth collection, "Be Recorder," was a finalist for a National Book Award and one of The Washington Post's top five poetry collections of 2019 (full list). That year, she was also my guest on Life of a Poet (video).
 Poet Sonia Sanchez admires her Edward MacDowell Medal while chairman of the board Nell Irvin Painter looks on at the MacDowell artist's residency program in Peterborough, N.H. on July 10. (Photo by Joanna Eldredge Morrissey) | Poet Sonia Sanchez received the Edward MacDowell Medal at the MacDowell artist's residency program in Peterborough, N.H. on July 10. The lifetime achievement honor also marks the launch of the Sonia Sanchez Fellowship, partially funded by the Poetry Foundation, which will be given this fall to an emerging poet "who might follow the path she has cleared and tended." (Check out this Q&A from our archives.) The author of more than a dozen collections of poetry, starting with "Homecoming" in 1969, Sanchez is a major figure in the Black Arts Movement, which began celebrating African American experience in the 1960s. This sequence of haiku is dedicated to fellow Black Arts Movement poet Eugene Redmond. 4 haiku 1.
Blue atom
poet transcribing
our flesh 2.
your quicksilver
words waterfalling in
sweet confession 3.
you have taken down
the morning turned it into
a roar of blackness 4.
your poems…
butterflies fluttering down
to earth. From "Morning Haiku," by Sonia Sanchez (2010). Reprinted by permission of Beacon Press. Correction: Last week, on the 200th anniversary of the death of Percy Bysshe Shelley, I made my first mistake. The lines I quoted – "Drive my dead thoughts over the universe..." – are not from Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound"; they're from his "Ode to the West Wind." We regret the error. As Shelley once noted, "Repentance is an easy moment's work."  Dawn Charles takes her gâteau d'Hélène (coconut cake) to the neighborhood barbeque. It was a hit. (Ron Charles/The Washington Post) | The enforced seclusion of the covid pandemic went on for so long that many of us have to relearn how to be social again. I'm finding it an awkward process, both strenuous and giddy. Last night, a friend who lives across the street invited us over for a barbeque. The neighbors, old and new, were delightful. The food – including Dawn's gâteau d'Hélène – was delicious. And the warm evening, lit by candles and fireflies, felt magical – what we used to call normal life. Remember that? Meanwhile, send any questions or comments about our book coverage to ron.charles@washpost.com. You can read last week's issue here. Please tell friends who might enjoy this free newsletter that they can get it every week by clicking here.
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