It seems that the Washington Post is seriously considering folding its entire stand-alone book section, Book World.
Contributors are gathering momentum to push back and keep this rare space in mainstream media devoted to books.
If you are a contributor (even if it was only once!) to the section, please consider adding your name to the letter below and sending it to savebookworld-at-yahoo-dot-com. Deadline is Friday!
My contact, who is part of coordinating this effort to keep Book World alive and healthy, adds that, "Poets and novelists especially welcome!"
If you know of contributors, please email me at annaleighclark-at-yahoo-dot-com, and I will pass their information on to my contact, who will invite them to further add weight to this effort to save Book World.
Non-contributors: start speaking up and out about the value and potential of book sections, and a dynamic literary dialogue in our communal spaces!
As contributors to and readers of Book World, we write to implore the editors of the Washington Post to keep it alive as a separate section in the Sunday newspaper. Few other forums introduce so many readers to so many important new works of literature and thought each week. As part of one of our most venerated papers, it carries prestige and influence. It enriches our culture with its thoughtful criticism.
With the newspaper business facing hard times, too many papers have already shuttered their book reviews. Only two stand-alone sections remain. To hard-pressed editors and publishers, these sections may seem peripheral to their papers’ mission. But the robust discussion of books is vital to a good society. “A newspaper discloses its view of the world clearly by what it chooses to cover and not to cover, and with what degree of rigor and pride,” the editors of The New Republic wrote last year. “When you deprive the coverage of books of adequate space and talent, you are declaring that books are not important.”
We call on the Washington Post to affirm its belief in the importance of books and of the unique role they play in our culture by maintaining its support of Book World.
UPDATE/CLARIFICATION: There is no confirmation that any decision about the fate of Book World has been made. Efforts by contributors to reinforce the WaPo's support of Book World are intended to subvert serious discussions that my contact attests to have taken place that Book World may be folded as the WaPo fiercely fights to stay afloat in the newspaper business.
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