This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Workman Publishing, publisher of Engineering for Cats by Mac Delaney.
The Man Booker Prize 2018 Longlist
Has been announced. Those 13 books selected by a panel of five judges, up for the £50,000 Prize, include Warlight by Michael Ondaatje, The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner, and Washington Black by Esi Edugyan. A graphic novel, Sabrina by Nick Drnaso, has also been chosen for the first time. The shortlist will be announced on September 20.
Gender Bias In The Man Booker Shortlist
Speaking of the Man Booker: AI is clapping back at misogyny in the Man Booker shortlist. Well. What actually happened is, an IBM study that used artificial intelligence found an abundance of gender bias in works shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize between 1969 and 2017. This includes stereotypes in the descriptors used to identify the characters, their jobs, and their roles in the books. Quelle surprise.
WorldCon Programming Sparks Anger
Today, WorldCon took down their original program and released an apology in response to a hailstorm of tweets and high-profile public withdrawals from the science fiction convention. Across the Twitterverse, the SF community, particularly marginalized creators, pointed to serious issues with the programming, including misgendering a Hugo finalist, rejecting an #OwnVoices panel because members don’t know what #OwnVoices means, taking private Facebook photos for use in the program…this is just a sampling. Read up on it here.
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