John Vaillant’s Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World, has won the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize for nonfiction. Per Frederick Studemann, chair of judges for the prize:

Fire Weather brings together a series of harrowing human stories with science and geo-economics, in an extraordinary and elegantly rendered account of a terrifying climate disaster that engulfed a community and industry, underscoring our toxic relationship with fossil fuels. Moving back and forth in time, across subjects, and from the particular to the global, this meticulously researched, thrillingly told book forces readers to engage with one of the most urgent issues of our time.

The climate disaster in question is the 2016 wildfire that swept through Fort McMurray, in Alberta, Canada, swallowing half a million acres of land and displacing nearly 100,000 people. You can read an excerpt from Fire Weather here.

The Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction is awarded annually, and comes with a £50,000 prize.

It’s been a hell of a 24 hours for writers demonstrating moral courage.

Last night at the National Book Awards, over a dozen NBA finalists took to the stage to use their moment in the spotlight to oppose the ongoing bombardment of Gaza and to call for a ceasefire.

Then, earlier this morning, the news broke that Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, essayist, and poetry editor of the New York Times Magazine, Anne Boyer, has resigned from her post, writing in her resignation letter that “the Israeli state’s U.S.-backed war against the people of Gaza is not a war for anyone” and that she “won’t write about poetry amid the ‘reasonable’ tones of those who aim to acclimatize us to this unreasonable suffering.”

Here is Boyer’s extraordinary resignation letter—in which she takes direct aim at the language used by her (now former) employer in its coverage of the war on Gaza—in full:

I have resigned as poetry editor of the New York Times Magazine.

The Israeli state’s U.S.-backed war against the people of Gaza is not a war for anyone. There is no safety in it or from it, not for Israel, not for the United States or Europe, and especially not for the many Jewish people slandered by those who claim falsely to fight in their names. Its only profit is the deadly profit of oil interests and weapon manufacturers. The world, the future, our hearts—everything grows smaller and harder from it. This is not only a war of missiles and land invasions. It is the ongoing devastation of the people of Palestine, people who have resisted throughout decades of occupation, forced dislocation, deprivation, surveillance, siege, imprisonment, and torture.

Because our status quo is self-expression, sometimes all artists have left is to refuse. So I refuse. I won’t write about poetry amidst the ‘reasonable’ tones of those who aim to acclimatize us to this unreasonable suffering. No more ghoulish euphemisms. No more sanitized hell-words. No more warmongering lies.

If this resignation leaves a hole in the news the size of poetry, then that is the true shape of the present.”

—Anne Boyer

Let’s hope that Boyer’s courage inspires other writers of her stature to use their platforms to speak out against this unconscionable war.

The St. Charles County library system recently bought additional copies of a challenged book, Bang Like a Porn Star: Sex Tips from the Pros, because “committee members need more copies to conduct a formal review.” Suuuuure guys.

The book, which features interviews with gay porn stars—along with helpful diagrams!—has been formally challenged by an as yet unnamed Charles County resident who doesn’t want you to learn about having good sex.

According to St. Louis Today:

Prior to the latest purchase, only one copy [of Bang Like a Porn Star] had been available, on the shelves at the library’s Kisker Road Branch near Weldon Spring. [Library spokesman] Lori Beth Crawford said she didn’t know when the committee would make a decision on the challenge.

Anonymous sources* tell me it could take up to three years for the committee to fully understand and appreciate all the nuances of Bang Like a Porn Star and that one committee member was heard saying that “if we need more time to get the bottom of things we’ll damn well take it; this book is our top priority.”

*I do not, in fact, have anonymous sources inside the St. Charles County library district.

In a star-studded National Book Awards ceremony that featured LeVar Burton (in another consummate turn as host), Oprah Winfrey (ebullient, and in person this time), and the disembodied voices of Julie Andrews, Trevor Noah, Matthew McConaughey (introducing the Translated Literature category…for some reason), and Dua Lipa, it was the nominees, and their collective moral courage, who stole the show.

At the close of the evening, after being announced as the winner of the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction, Justin Torres announced that he would be keeping his remarks short, because the finalists had collectively decided to make a statement. Torres then invited more than a dozen of his fellow nominees to join him on stage as he gave a brief, lovely acceptance speech, before turning the microphone over to fiction finalist Aaliyah Bilal, who read the following:

On behalf of the finalists, we oppose the ongoing bombardment of Gaza and call for a humanitarian cease-fire to address the urgent humanitarian needs of Palestinian civilians, particularly children. We oppose antisemitism and anti-Palestinian sentiment and Islamophobia equally, accepting the human dignity of all parties, knowing that further bloodshed does nothing to secure lasting peace in the region.

Many of the writers who were nominated prepared a statement about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Thank you for your words of peace. pic.twitter.com/fFNmZIANaP

— Literary Hub (@lithub) November 16, 2023

On one of the biggest nights of their professional lives, at a time when the hostile national climate has cowed many of their creative peers into silence, these writers chose to spotlight the plight of the people of Gaza, and to call, loudly and clearly, for a ceasefire.

When Bilal finished reading the statement, the room burst into thunderous applause.

As reported by Publishers Lunch earlier today, Zibby Owens—the CEO of Zibby Media and creator/host of the Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books podcast—has withdrawn her sponsorship of tomorrow’s National Book Awards ceremony, citing the nominees’ decision “to collectively band together to use their speeches to promote a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli agenda.”

As detailed in a Substack post this morning, Owens had written to NBF executive director Ruth Dickey earlier this week after hearing a report that nominees might be planning collective action in support of Palestine at Wednesdays’ ceremony in New York:

I am deeply troubled to learn that all the nominees of the National Book Awards this year have decided to collectively band together to use their speeches to promote a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli agenda. As a sponsor, I am not comfortable bringing my authors and my team into a politically charged environment like this one, one that will make many of us feel quite uncomfortable—including myself as a Jewish woman. It’s one thing to gather to celebrate literary accomplishments and reward books well-written. It’s quite another to be subsidizing an event that’s being used as a platform to fuel hate and divisiveness. Unless we can get complete and total assurance that the National Book Foundation will be actively and publicly denouncing anti-semitism and the inappropriate conduct and collusion of its nominees to foster a highly-charged, destructive environment, we’ll be rescinding our sponsorship and, of course, not attending. We know these times are fraught and difficult to navigate. But we simply can’t be a part of anything that promotes discrimination, in this case of Israel and the Jewish people. I hope your organization decides to take a public, strong stance against this one-sided, discriminatory behavior.

In the same Substack post, Owens goes on to report on her subsequent conversation with National Book Foundation Director Ruth Dickey:

When I spoke to Ruth, I was hoping for her to come back with what the National Book Foundation would be doing to prevent the weaponization of the National Book Awards stage. Ruth told me that she knew these were fraught times but that they did not believe in censoring speeches.

Having found Dickey’s response to the issue raised unsatisfactory, Owens sent Dickey the following:

I am deeply saddened to hear that all hate speech will be allowed and that there is no recourse planned for any inflammatory remarks should they occur, nor any preventative measures being taken. I believe deeply in free speech, but not hate speech. The National Book Foundation can run the awards in any way you choose, of course, but I can’t be a sponsor of this any longer. My team will not attend. We would like to rescind our donation knowing that it is funding an organization that will not attempt to prevent racist, religious or any other form of discrimination on its main stage. That is not a welcoming environment and isn’t aligned with my own values of kindness and community. I am devoting my entire career to uplifting authors and creating connections among authors and readers. There’s nothing I want more than to celebrate the accomplishments of talented authors like this year’s. But I can’t do so in an environment that values ‘not censoring’ authors more than preventing what seems likely given the collusion of many authors already—a prejudiced, activist environment that intends to use the platform of the book awards to perpetuate activism against a group based on race or religion.

Owens closed her Substack post with this:

I hope that the brilliant authors who win the awards tomorrow night use their speeches for good. I hope this concern was for naught and that there are no anti-semitic comments. Unfortunately, in these highly charged days with hostages held and attacks happening, a line as simple as “Free Palestine,” or “from the river to the sea,” means more than just support of one side; it has come to mean the antagonization of an entire religion, not just a place.

I want the authors to be thrilled. I am thrilled for them. A good book to me is absolutely everything. And these authors should be commended and celebrated for their wonderful accomplishments in the literary world. Truly. I say that knowing we are often on opposite sides of a political fence. But if we can’t come together when celebrating books and literature, when can we? Books and literature should unite us as human beings. They transport, educate, and connect. Books are a common language, a gift, an enabling of multiple perspectives.

My hope is that the NBF takes action to ensure their awards feel like a safe space to celebrate books. After all, isn’t that why we all attend?!

Now, individuals are entitled to their personal opinions (even if those opinions, in my opinion, irresponsibly conflate Palestinian advocacy with antisemitism), and are free to sponsor or not sponsor any cultural event they choose, but Zibby Owens is a significant power player in this industry, and her public statements therefore carry more weight and influence than those of your average literary citizen.

If Zibby Owens—”NYC’s most important book-fluencer,” whose extremely popular podcast and book club are regular ports of call for marketing and publicity teams at the Big 5 publishers—declares that “Free Palestine … has come to mean the antagonization of an entire religion” and that condemnation of Israel’s assault on Gaza is tantamount to “fuel[ing] hate,” well, that’s a real problem for our industry. Already hesitant publishers, reading these words, will be be even less likely to publicly support authors who bravely speak out against Israel’s assault on Gaza. Other authors will then be less likely to use their modest platforms to publicly condemn the atrocities taking place.

All this is to say, kudos to Ruth Dickey for standing her ground on this important issue, and to the National Book Foundation for continuing to platform writers of conscience at their annual flagship event.

Last night’s Giller Prize ceremony in Toronto was interrupted twice by pro-Palestinian protesters. The event—which honors the best of Canadian literature—was attended by such luminaries as Margaret Atwood and Vincent Lam, who looked on early in the evening as several protesters took to the stage holding signs that read “Scotiabank funds genocide,” a reference to the Giller Prize sponsor’s investment in Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons company.

Later on, during the announcement of this year’s Giller Prize winner—Sarah Bernstein, for the novel Study for Obedience—another protester made it on stage to denounce Israel’s assault on Gaza. According to the Canadian Press, though:

Bernstein’s win was announced again and in an acceptance speech delivered via video call, Bernstein did not acknowledge protests that also included [the] interruption earlier in the night. Instead, she stressed the importance of storytelling:

“I think … how important it is, now more than ever, to support writers in material ways who tell stories of their own people in their own ways, especially when their stories challenge dominant historical narratives.”

With that thought in mind, I highly recommend this compendium of Palestinian literature.

It’s the middle of November, which means that, for many of us, the days are a not-quite-enviable blend of colder and shorter (why we still use Daylight Savings Time is a mystery I’ll save for elsewhere). But never fear, there’s a bit of brightness ahead: a whole slew of exciting new books to light up your days. Below, you’ll find a new novel from Michael Cunningham, Alan Garner’s Booker-shortlisted novel, new biographies of Willa Cather and Einstein, an exploration of the much-discussed idea of the art monster in the context of feminist art, a cultural history of eyeliner, astonishing poetry collections, and much, much more. I hope you’ll find something below to curl up with somewhere warm and well-lit.

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Michael Cunningham, Day
(Random House)

“Along with George Eliot, Michael Cunningham belongs in that rare group of novelists who hold the world close, with apparently infinite respect, compassion, and tenderness, all while describing…its inhabitants unsparingly. Day is a portrait of the life of a family, preceding, during, and immediately after the pandemic, rendered in fragments, almost as if assembling forensic evidence, not of a crime but of quiet tragedies and quiet, heroic endurance. There’s deep recognition here, bordering on revelation.”
–Tony Kushner

Lexi Freiman, The Book of Ayn
(Catapult)

“I had the rare experience while reading The Book of Ayn of slowly realizing I had stumbled on something so good that it was changing my taste. So funny, so clever, so alive to the absurdity of contemporary life without reverting to the boring cynicism that would be so easy. I loved it.”
–Megan Nolan

Joanne McNeil, Wrong Way
(MCD X FSG Originals)

“A Ballardian tale of pristine corporate campuses and aspirational product marketing, Wrong Way reveals to us the very human cost of the AI future we’ve already been sold and makes us question how many lies and absurdities we’re willing to accept in order to try to feel like we belong here. Subtle and beautiful, Joanne McNeil’s masterful debut is a powerful example of what the contemporary novel can and should be in our endlessly perplexing times.”
–Tim Maughan

Lauren Elkin, Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art
(FSG)

“Elkin’s authority as a cultural critic springs from her signature style of curious questioning. Rather than imposing her conclusions on the reader, she juxtaposes ideas, images, language, in a vivid collage that invites us to look more deeply. Never linear—because life isn’t—but perpetually moving, in both senses of the word.”
–Jeanette Winterson

Benjamin Taylor, Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather
(Viking)

“Taylor provides a remarkably revealing account of the life and creative output of Willa Cather…Taylor’s connection of Cather’s personal life and her literary inventions is consistently astute, and the exuberant force of her imagination emerges vividly…the author presents a rewarding and perceptive portrait, providing a valuable assessment of Cather’s intriguing character and the enduring importance of her oeuvre. Keen, insightful commentary on a literary master.”
–Kirkus Reviews

Jodi M. Savage, The Death of a Jaybird: Essays on Mothers and Daughters and the Things They Leave Behind
(Harper Perennial)

“In this impassioned and unforgettable collection of essays, Jodi M. Savage explores the joy, beauty, and sadness that fill the lives of three generations of women, some who love too much, and others struggling to love and be loved….Savage’s essays are filled with the hard-earned wit and wisdom of a writer on a revelatory journey that makes us laugh out loud while also moving us to tears. You will read these essays again and again, just to remain a bit longer in Savage’s delightful and healing company.”
–Edwidge Danticat

Alan Garner, Treacle Walker
(Scribner)

“Creative and highly enjoyable….Somehow breathlessly paced without feeling rushed, this excellent novella features the trademark accents and dialogue found in Garner’s tales throughout his career as well as wondrously evocative descriptions. This Italo Calvino-like feat of imagination is nourishing in the way all great stories are.”
–Booklist

Celina Baljeet Basra, Happy
(Astra House)

“First-time novelist Basra delivers a damning indictment of capitalism, a system that swallows the global poor whole and spits out wasted humans. At the same time, Basra maintains a light touch; the novel wears its burdens with good humor.”
–Booklist

Robert Glück, About Ed
(NYRB)

“The masterly latest from Glück, whose novel Margery Kempe was reissued by NYRB Classics in 2020, examines sex, death, and literature through the story of his friend’s death from AIDS….Based on 20 years of notes…Glück’s novel is as philosophical and theory-leaning as one would expect…while…offering carnivalesque carnality, piercing humor, keen social observation, and a humane, earthy sensibility. This is a revelation.”
–Publishers Weekly

Maurice Manning, Snakedoctor
(Copper Canyon Press)

“Manning is at his best in quiet moments of stunning lyricism….There is a deep reverence for the ancestral spirit of the land, as if Kentucky’s rich hills and flowing streams were a part of its residents’ DNA. Manning’s verse resonates with the plaintive loneliness of his rural landscapes and the divine presence that alleviates that loneliness, be it God, one’s forebears, or poetry.”
–Publishers Weekly

Clark Coolidge, The Crystal Text
(City Lights Books)

“The Crystal Text is at once a philosophical poem in the lineage of Lucretius and a word-jazz excursion in the spirit of Monk and Lacy. Here, the poet’s stylus becomes a drumstick that patterns a nonlinear logic of fleeting reflections, performing cymbal-clash as symbol-crash. The result is a unified field theory of music, thought, and poetry. The reissue of Coolidge’s long out-of-print masterpiece deserves a standing ovation.”
–Andrew Joron

Nick Laird, Up Late: Poems
(Norton)

“Up Late is an incredible book. It finds a music for our moment—its fragilities and terrors, it sets restlessness to a rhythm. It finds a new kind of irony, one that confronts our endless gallop into a mechanical, artificial, made-up idea of future, and asks instead why are we here in the first place, asks so without patronizing, almost without irony itself. There is an honesty in the tone of this book that stays in mind days after the last page is turned.”
–Ilya Kaminsky

Samuel Graydon, Einstein in Time and Space: A Life in 99 Particles
(Scribner)

“Albert Einstein’s life was as multifaceted and challenging as the universe he described. The best way to appreciate it is to break the story down into small pieces, a job that Samuel Graydon has done brilliantly. This book provides us with a uniquely compelling look at the human side of one of the greatest thinkers of all time.”
–Sean Carroll

Zahra Hankir, Eyeliner: A Cultural History
(Penguin Books)

“Fascinating . . . The book travels around the world and through time, documenting the use of eyeliner in religious settings, in social settings, cultural customs around it, and much more. [Hankir] blends memoir and anecdote with research and reportage, historical examination, and cultural/societal commentary to create an absorbing and engaging read.”
–Book Riot

Christopher de Hamel, The Manuscripts Club: The People Behind a Thousand Years of Medieval Manuscripts
(Penguin Press)

“Continuously intriguing and surprisingly lively…lavishly illustrated and unfailingly engaging. It is a love letter to collectors across nearly 10 centuries, written by an expert, imbued with passion for his subject….Once readers look inside, they will be hooked. In every respect, this title is a winner.”
–Library Journal

Gabriel Bump, The New Naturals
(Algonquin)

“The New Naturals is a tragicomedy for our times, exploring that age-old question of how to connect with our fellow human beings and build community, even as the world makes increasingly less sense. A tour-de-force, full of heart and asking the big questions about life and the mind.”
–Kaitlyn Greenidge

Claire Keegan, So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men
(Grove Press)

“A master class in precisely crafted short fiction….Keegan’s trenchantobservations explode like bombshells, bringing menace and retribution to tales of romancedelayed, denied, and even deadly.”
–Booklist

Noa Yedlin, Stockholm
(Harpervia)

“A deviously clever black comedy … Yedlin puts her characters through the wringer with the nonstop confrontations, which are distressing to them and hilarious to the reader. At the same time, she uses the slapstick situation to ask probing questions about the nature of friendship and mortality. Readers will be amused by this literary variation on Weekend at Bernie’s.”
–Publishers Weekly

Rebecca Shaw, Ben Kronengold, Naked in the Rideshare: Stories of Gross Miscalculations
(William Morrow)

“Comedy gold. An entertainingly zany collection of sketches poking fun at the foibles of contemporary life at every age.”
–Kirkus Reviews

Rebecca Renner, Gator Country: Deception, Danger, and Alligators in the Everglades
(Flatiron Books)

“An astounding story about an alligator-poaching operation in the Florida Everglades. [Renner] probes the nature of crime and human character, while also mining the far-reaching consequences of what it truly takes to survive—in the wild and in society…. Her propulsive narrative reads as suspensefully as a well-wrought mystery novel as she uncovers an exciting true story rife with shocking twists and turns that will educate, enlighten, and enthrall her audience.”
–Shelf Awareness

Tariq Trotter, The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are
(One World)

“One of hip-hop’s greatest MCs, unpacking his harrowing, remarkable journey in his own words, with enough insights for two lifetimes.”
–Lin-Manuel Miranda

Mandy Matney, Carolyn Murnick, Blood on Their Hands: Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty
(William Morrow)

“[Matney and Murnick] write with the unshowy momentum of the best investigative reporting. The result is both an engrossing true crime saga and a galvanizing ode to boots-on-the-ground journalism.”
–Publishers Weekly

Bennett Sims, Other Minds and Other Stories
(Two Dollar Stories)

“[Bennett Sims] draws on academia, art, and technology for a superb collection about identity and memory….Throughout, Sims boldly plays with form, such as in ‘Introduction to the Reading of Hegel,’ which consists of one paragraph that extends for nearly 30 pages and chronicles an adjunct professor’s self-sabotage….Here and elsewhere, the prose is shot through with pitch-perfect observations and dark undercurrents….These brilliant stories are hard to shake.”
–Publishers Weekly

Zeke Caligiuri, American Precariat: Parables of Exclusion
(Coffee House Press)

“Here are some of our most vital storytellers, talking about justice, violence, home and punishment, their work chosen by writers who’ve learned the true cost of these values in their own lives. American Precariat is a thrilling new model for how to open up a space in which to talk about the America that actually is, not the one of dreams. I am in awe of what they have assembled. This heart-sickening and yet hopeful-making book should be required reading everywhere.”
–John Freeman

On 8 November 1623, the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays was registered, bringing together the great playwright’s work as a single printed collection for the first time and saving it for centuries to come. 400 years on, Folio is delighted to commemorate the anniversary with a sensational limited edition; a triumph of the bookmakers’ art and a legacy for future generations, which includes a foreword by Dame Judi Dench and an introduction by Gregory Doran, the RSC’s Artistic Director Emeritus. Neil Packer’s designs for the elegant, bespoke bindings are inspired by Elizabethan blackwork embroidery – his artwork perfectly replicated in sumptuous silk and linen jacquard cloth woven by Stephen Walters & Sons, the oldest silk-weaving company in Britain. Packer has also contributed 40 illustrations and designs for the presentation box.

Olivia Rutigliano chats with Neil Packer about the making of this extraordinary work of art.

Olivia Rutigliano: Your artwork appears all over this edition—on the pages, lining the slipcase, even embroidered into the material that the books are bound in. What was it like illustrating these very different parts of the book—how did you decide the design for each part—i.e., how did you get the idea to make an illustration of the playhouse the inside of the slipcase, or how did you decide which symbols to feature in the pattern for the binding?

Neil Packer: Firstly it is necessary to understand that producing a project on this scale and of such importance is very much a collaborative endeavour. Before I even begin on the illustrations, very lengthy discussions will have been had about an approach. This will have included the art director, the production director as well as the editors, and it is necessary for everyone to be in agreement about the aesthetic of what the finished book might feel like.

My job is then to visually flesh out that aesthetic, not only within the illustrations for each of the plays but, as you suggest, to bring that same feel to all of the other elements of the book. I trained as a graphic designer and cut my teeth in the industry working on corporate identities back in the 80s. Perhaps some of that stuck with me as I still hugely enjoy bringing a harmony to all the separate elements of a project like this.

The look of the illustrations for each of the plays was primarily driven by 16^th-century woodblock prints but I also wanted the images to nod slightly towards figures from Victorian toy theatres. The idea of the theatre within the slipcase came out of that idea as these tiny characters would of course require a stage.

All of these processes bring with them their own challenges and with this project we were attempting to take the design to places that none of us had ever ventured before. In particular the silk bindings for the three 3 volumes was something entirely new to us all and a great deal of time and effort was given to understanding what was possible to produce in the form of silk on linen woven on a jacquard loom.

The idea of the symbols was born out of necessity as we didn’t want any text to appear at all on the binding designs. It needed to look as much like Elizabethan blackwork as possible. However it was important that the reader should be able to identify each of the volumes at a glance from within the slipcase. So it seemed a logical solution to change one of the elements of the design for each of the volumes and to align them on the spines, (a crown for The Histories, a jester’s hat for The Comedies and a heart for The Tragedies) – an easy enough solution to think up but extremely difficult to get to work in practice.

OR:  What medium did you work in to create these designs?

I had intended for the illustrations in this book to look like woodcuts and to perhaps carry some of the slightly unsettling nature of woodcuts from Shakespeare’s period. They are however not woodcuts but worked in very fine pencil on tracing paper. Heads, limbs and torsos are drawn separately as are the other elements of each illustration. This is to give some flexibility when putting them together in the final image. My instinct is to at least try to draw everything to correct proportions but that is not the aesthetic I wanted for this project as part of the appeal of 16^th-century woodcuts is that they have a beautifully skewed aesthetic to them, something I can more easily try to match by manipulating all the elements separately.

The pencil lines are scanned and loaded into photoshop where I layer a negative on top of a positive version and then, using the clunky mouse and the eraser tool, cut away at parts of the negative image giving them a slightly coarse woodcut look. I then add my own roller textures and add colour to parts of them. I have a strict dogma about using photoshop which keeps as much of the algorithm out of the process as possible and I have deliberately only learnt a tiny corner of what is possible within the system.

OR: I saw that you made a pop-up theater based on your slipcase illustrations! It’s wonderful. How did you make it?

NP: The pop-up theatre was something we had talked about for a long time but we were not exactly sure how it might fit into the larger project. It came right at the end of the project and is really just a publicity prop. It is based on a design I created 40 years ago., In fact I still have the original one and astonishingly enough it still folds up perfectly after all that time. Over the intervening four decades I  made another three of them and have tried, with no success, to get interest in a commercial version in some form. The problem is that it is too complicated to build as multiples and this particular version, which is repurposed artwork from within the book reproduced as giclee prints and hand-mounted, hand-cut and hand-assembled, took at least two weeks to build just the one.

It is hugely enjoyable to start to think again in three dimensions and to spend a bit of time working on something physical, but probably building one of these every ten years or so is quite enough.

OR: How do you decide which scenes from the plays to use when illustrating the cover page for each play?

It is effectively a matter of achieving a balance between two or three problems, as is often the case with any design decision. Firstly, how recognisable is the image? Should one opt for the obvious scenes which everyone knows? But these scenes might not be so recognisable as a visual image, after all it is Shakespeare’s written language that often marks out a moment rather than what is happening visually.

Some of the plays might have a unique factor to them such as Lance’s dog in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, (the only dog in all of Shakespeare) thus giving it a unique identity and trumping some of the more famous scenes from that play.

Another factor is what will work best as a strong and memorable image but more important still is to try and put clear water between all the images, to try and make them as different from what has gone previously as possible, and although it is important to try and balance all these sometime competing issues the final image should be identifiable as that from a given play.

OR: Do you have a favourite illustration in this edition?

NP: Much ado About Nothing, I think it ticks all the above boxes.

OR: Do you have a favorite Shakespeare play?

NP: Richard III

OR: Since Shakespeare has been adapted countless times in all kinds of media, is it hard not to be influenced by previous images/aesthetics/renderings you’ve seen, or do you end up leaning into that influence a bit?

NP: Yes, very possibly but I think it is partly, at least, unconscious. I think that is how influences work generally, it is maybe as simple as absorbing the things we love in whatever form, and for this project particularly in the form of live theatre, but also film, artworks and even music probably has had an influence on some aspects.

A good example of influence might be the image for Richard III. Looking back at this image now, more than a year after I made it, I can see that clearly the Elizabethan woodblock print is my starting point with all of that unsettling atmosphere which usually attends them. But I can also see the influence of outsider art, particularly in the depiction of the ghosts I notice a little of my liking for Albrecht Durer’s engravings within the faces and I am pretty certain that Richard’s stance, with his weight on the two sticks, comes from Antony Sher’s legendary breakthrough performance of Richard III in 1984, these ideas may have been in my mind at the time of making this drawing but they would have been seeded I’m my head decades earlier.

OR: You’ve worked with the Folio Society since the 1990s—is there a particular Folio release that you were especially excited to work on?

NP: I have to say that I have enjoyed every Folio Society book that I have ever worked on, they have an uncanny talent for marrying illustrators with particular books. It is interesting that probably 70% of the books that Folio have commissioned me to illustrate were already books I have read and loved. The other 30% were books I had not previously read but became books that I love. Obviously the last two books for The Folio Society have been extraordinary., and to follow Mythical Beasts and Dante’s The Divine Comedy with The Complete Plays of Shakespeare is an extraordinary privilege, but I try to bring the same amount of passion to every project and it has always been the case that once a project is finished, the book I am most excited about working on is the next one.

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Neil Packer was born in Birmingham in 1961. He trained at the Colchester School of Art before becoming a full-time illustrator in 1984 with the publication of his first children’s book. He has had a long career working in design, publishing and advertising, mostly in the United States. He has illustrated a number of  titles for The Folio Society, including I, Claudius (1994), The Name of the Rose (2001), Catch-22 (2004), One Hundred Years of Solitude (2006), Foucault’s Pendulum (2016), Mythical Beasts (2021) and most recently the award-winning limited edition of The Divine Comedy. Packer’s work has been exhibited in London, Singapore and the United States.

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The Folio Society’s limited edition of The Complete Plays of William Shakespeare, celebrating the 400th anniversary of the First Folio, features fabulous artwork by Neil Packer, a foreword by Dame Judi Dench and an introduction by Gregory Doran.

More information about the making of this edition is available here.

The Folio Society’s limited edition of The Complete Plays of William Shakespeare, is available on foliosociety.com

Over 2000 poets and writers—including Danez Smith, Franny Choi, Safiya Sinclair, Daniel José Older, Jamel Brinkley, Hala Alyan, and Javier Zamora—have pledged to boycott the Poetry Foundation (as well as it’s poetry journal, Poetry), citing “a recent instance of prejudiced silencing” in which Joshua Gutterman Tranen’s review of Sam Sax’s collection PIG, which engages with anti-Zionist politics, was shelved indefinitely because the magazine didn’t want to be seen as “picking a side” in the ongoing genocide unfolding in Gaza.

In response to what they see as the censoring of anti-Zionist Jewish writers, four poets—Noor Hindi, Summer Farah, Omar Sakr, and George Abraham—published the below open letter to the board of the Poetry Foundation and the editors of Poetry in which they urge their peers to boycott the Foundation and its press “until such time as they have demonstrated they are on the side of humanity.”

Here is the letter in full:

TO THE BOARD OF THE POETRY FOUNDATION AND THE EDITORS OF POETRY

We, the undersigned, are writing to express our deep concern and disappointment regarding a recent instance of prejudiced silencing within the Poetry Foundation.

Joshua Gutterman Tranen’s review of Sam Sax’s collection PIG, which engages with anti-Zionist politics—Joshua’s and Sam’s—was “shelved” indefinitely by Poetry magazine on October 8th because the magazine doesn’t want to be seen as “picking a side” in the genocide unfolding in Gaza. To postpone at a later date is a strategy used both by The Foundation in the past–where is the trans/GNC issue planned in 2017?–as well as other organizations seeking to silence pro-Palestine voices. It is the mission of the Foundation to “amplify poetry and celebrate poets by fostering spaces for all”; in a critical landscape that marginalizes poetry, the censorship of a review by a Jewish writer about a Jewish poet’s work is shocking.  This takes place in the context of anti-Zionist American Jews being arrested for protesting the war crimes of Israel, and of anti-Zionist Jews being attacked within Israel itself.

We want to be clear: censoring an American Jewish anti-Zionist is indeed taking a side. As of this writing, over 8,000 Palestinians have been slaughtered. Over 3,500 Palestinian children have been killed, while another thousand are missing under the rubble. The number of dead increases every minute. Palestinians have been starved, denied water and power for the past four weeks with the support of Western governments, in direct defiance of international law and human decency. 1.4 million have been forcefully displaced and numerous Israeli government officials have stated their intention to commit genocide and ethnically cleanse Gaza from their population. In light of these crimes against humanity, Western governments have not just been shamefully silent, but grotesquely supportive of this mass murder of innocents, and it has fallen to regular people all over the world to protest in historic numbers, to raise their voices in a show of profound defiance and solidarity.

There have been attempts by politicians and their mouth-pieces throughout the Anglosphere to smear these protests, to diminish them through lies about their size and their intent, to say “now is not the time”, and even to categorize them as “violent” while simultaneously laundering the murder of thousands through a mixture of rote diplomatic jargon and strident Orientalism. This is to say there are two sides at play, one that is pro-genocide and one that is not. Now is not the time for silencing critical Jewish voices, in whose names this genocide is being committed—it is the time to amplify them and the communities most directly impacted by the violence.

The Poetry Foundation Strategic Plan, published in 2022, states that “The Poetry Foundation supports poetry in all its diversity,” envisioning a world in which poetry is vital to building a better future for everyone, and “center[ing] the values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access in programming, publishing, grantmaking, and internal operations.” It is clear that you have failed in this, profoundly, and it is not the first time. If you turn away while our kin in Gaza are killed, if you will not hear us when we most need to be heard, what use are you?

The Foundation was established the year the United States invaded Iraq, when thousands took to the streets to protest the unjust war. The Foundation was born into a United States ripe with anti-Arab, Islamophobic sentiment. This landscape has not changed. Today, thousands take to the streets to protest the genocidal escalation in Gaza, and pledge their solidarity to the Palestinian struggle against settler colonialism, and the Poetry Foundation has decided to silence them. The Foundation has picked a side. To claim that the review was held in order to protect the critic from potential backlash is infantilizing and cowardly; silence does not protect anyone. As artists, we accept the risks that come from taking a stand.

We urge the Poetry Foundation to understand the gravity of this failure, to act swiftly to address these concerns, and to reaffirm its commitment to equality in the world of poetry. Our demands are as follows:

Take a stand against imperialism Zionist settler colonialism of Palestinian land and the genocide of the Palestinian people

Commit to supporting, instead of censoring, Palestinians and anti-Zionist voices.

Commit to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel

We, the undersigned poets, equally urge our peers to boycott the Foundation and its press until such time as they have demonstrated they are on the side of humanity. This includes:

Do not send work to POETRY magazine

Do not guest on or host podcasts produced by the Foundation

Do not write for Harriet

Do not participate in Ours Poetica or other affiliated Foundation programs

Cancel your subscription to POETRY magazine

The Foundation’s actions in response to these matters will not only shape the foundation’s future but also send a powerful message to the broader literary community.

Signed,

Noor Hindi, 2021 Ruth Lily and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow
Summer Farah, Radius of Arab American Writers
Omar Sakr
George Abraham, Executive Editor of Mizna

You can see the full list of signatories here

Since the publication of the letter on November 3, at least three Poetry Foundation events have been cancelled. The Poetry Foundation has also been removed as the main sponsor of the upcoming Southern California Poetry Festival.

On November 11th, the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) announced the winners of the 25th National Translation Awards. The NTAs are awarded, in both poetry and prose, to “literary translators who have made an outstanding contribution to literature in English by masterfully recreating the artistic force of a book of consummate quality.” The winning translators have been awarded $4,000 each.

This year’s prose judges are Natascha Bruce, Shelley Frisch, Jason Grunebaum, Sawad Hussain, and Lytton Smith. This year’s judges for poetry are Pauline Fan, Heather Green, and Shook.

Winner of the 2023 National Translation Award in Poetry:

Iman Mersal, The Threshold
Translated from Arabic by Robyn Creswell
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Judges’ Citation: Robyn Creswell writes that the poet Iman Mersal,  “Egypt’s—indeed, the Arab World’s—great outsider poet” finds her politics “not in the public square or at the checkpoint, but rather in the realm of sexual relations, commonplace idioms, and hierarchies of power that are more durable because mostly unacknowledged.” It is in his straightforward, lyrical rendition of such scenarios that the translator succeeds. An abiding skepticism animates The Threshold, of collective identities, political mobilization, modernization, family relations, and much more. In the title poem, “one long-serving intellectual screamed at his friend / When I’m talking about democracy / you shut the hell up.” “CV,” which catalogues the conspicuous absence of wasted days and empty hours, ends by defining the vita’s relationship to life itself as “proof that the one who lived it / has cut all ties to the earth.”

Winner of the 2023 National Translation Award in Prose:

Thuân, Chinatown
Translated from Vietnamese by Nguyễn An Lý
(New Directions | Tilted Axis Press)

Judges’ Citation: The premise of Chinatown promises claustrophobia: a Vietnamese woman trapped in the Paris metro by a suspect package, possibly a bomb. Thuận’s novel, though, brought to us by Nguyễn An Lý’s sweeping, melodic phrasing, is anything but sedentary: who knew reverie could be this fast-moving, this suspenseful? Below the surface, waiting, feeling the uneasy gaze of her fellow Parisians, our narrator travels back through her memories—of her son, of Hanoi, of his absent, longed-for father—and, in so doing, gifts us constraint’s solace: that memories might bring one back to a sense of self, against all the odds.