Heather Ewart’s final Back Roads
In her final episode, Heather Ewart returns to her hometown of Murchison, and relives unforgettable moments from her time on the road.
Miles Franklin Literary Award
They've announced the winner of this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award, the leading Australian novel prize, and it is Ghost Cities, by Siang Lu; see also the University of Queensland Press publicity page.
Gregor Formanek is likely the very last SS guard of a concentration camp to be charged by German prosecutors. “Did he enjoy the power he had? Did he care? Did he find it boring? Did it make him uneasy?”
In her last column for WaPo, columnist Catherine Rampell shares some advice for aspiring pundits. “Know your immovable principles and red lines — journalistically, ethically, ideologically — and why you’re columnizing in the first place.
“Writers and their readers are the heartbeat of the literary ecosystem, and the Sydney Writers’ Festival connects the two,” Webb said.
Sydney is not a shallow city’: Major change for Sydney Writers’ Festival
‘Founders Films’ aims to remake Hollywood with patriotism, Palantir and Ayn Rand Semafor
Nobel Prize in Literature betting
This year's Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced 9 October -- and while there's not much betting on it (yet ?), there are odds up at Betus: twenty-four possibilities, including ... Taylor Swift.
More interesting, however, is that Kalshi, one of the (relatively) new prediction markets, also offers ... position-taking opportunities on the prize. Not so much interesting for only having ten possible choices but because, unlike the betting shops, this market allows you to take a position on an author not winning the prize -- and there's money here for the taking, since one of the options they offer (as I write this, and surely not for much longer ...) is Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, who -- being deceased -- can't win the prize. But a 'No' option on him only costs $0.93 -- a $100 stake paying out $108 (before fees). Not a great return, but, hey, it's free money -- there's no way Ngũgĩ can be awarded the prize.
(I hope whoever takes advantage of this opportunity -- and someone surely will -- takes them for as much as possible.)
Meanwhile, Kalshi admirably also reveals how much money has been bet -- staked -- so far on the potential winner (and non-winners) of the prize, and it's .... $5116.00.
Post-Dylan, I've had trouble working up much interest in the run-up to the prize, but if you want to follow or engage in discussion, the Nobel Prize in Literature 2025 Speculationthread at the World Literature Forum is presumably the place you want to go; they're up to 957 engagements, last I checked.
Archaeologists Discover a 2,400-Year-Old Skeleton Mosaic That Urges People to “Be Cheerful and Live Your Life”. This skeleton is a whole vibe.
