Yesterday, Jewish Currents editor David Klion posted a profile of Emily Ratajkowski, written by Thomas Chatterton Williams and Valentine Faure, that ran in the French edition of Marie Claire. A translation of the article has Williams describing Ratajkowski as having been “blessed with the most perfect breasts of her generation.” Williams also expresses surprise at the fact that Ratajkowski has read Roberto Bolaño. Ratajkowski herself has weighed in: “I really hope this will be the last of my ‘she has breasts AND claims to read’ profiles/interviews. Lots of levels of gross/embarrassing aspects to this but the attempt at a feminist critique at the end is maybe the worst part.”
An editor’s note at The Atlantic explains the magazine’s decision to retract (but not remove) an article about parents who hope to get their kids into Ivy League schools with niche sports. The letter points out that the article’s author, Ruth S. Barrett—who “misled our fact-checkers” and “lied to our editors”—is in fact Ruth Shalit Barrett, a reporter who left the New Republic in 1999, “after plagiarism and inaccurate reporting were discovered in her work.” The letter adds: “We decided to assign Barrett this freelance story in part because more than two decades separated her from her journalistic malpractice at the New Republic and because in recent years her work has appeared in reputable magazines. We took into consideration the argument that Barrett deserved a second chance to write feature stories such as this one. We were wrong to make this assignment, however. It reflects poor judgment on our part, and we regret our decision.”
The Albertine Prize—in which American readers choose their favorite French novel from the past year—has posted its short list, selected by French literary critic François Busnel, American author Rachel Kushner, the staff of the Albertine bookstore, and the Book Department of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. You can cast your vote for the winner until November 25.
In a virtual interview hosted by Columbia University’s writing program, Maggie Nelson discusses her work and reads the first pages of her forthcoming book, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint, which will be published by Graywolf in September 2021.
Princeton University Press has paid six figures for activist and professor Ruha Benjamin’s Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want. According to the publisher, the book, “part memoir, part manifesto,” was “born out of the twin plagues of Covid-19 and police violence” and urges readers “to confront how we individually participate in unjust systems, even when ‘in theory’ we stand for justice.”