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Books in the News

Today marks the beginning of Banned Books Week, and up on the Attic, some of our staff share some books that have been, in one form or another, subject to a ban in the US.Book bans have become easier to fast-track, but movements to censor texts, especially books by and about and for LGBTQ+ people this last year in particular, often take place at the local level, especially at public libraries. Later this week, there are several actions you can take to support book access in collaboration with Banned Books Week.Meanwhile, the WGA fought hard for a new contract, and won. A key provision addresses the use of AI. Specifically, their contract maintains “the right to assert that exploitation of writers’ material to train AI is prohibited," which comes at a key moment when many authors found out that their own books have been used to train AI, without their knowledge or consent, through a database called Books3. The Authors Guild continues to be a useful advocacy resource for authors, and its lawsuit against OpenAI has the potential to be immensely beneficial to the literary community as a whole.As a reminder, Atticus Review reserves the right to refuse publication to work generated through AI, and the right to withdraw an acceptance, even after publication, of work we find to have been generated through AI. While that legalese was difficult to type, I can say that as a first-year writing instructor, AI writing is still fairly easy to catch, mostly because it sounds like someone is rolling dice to determine which adjectives to use.As for the review this month, we close early for poetry submissions tonight before midnight, and we are still looking for some poetry readers to join the team. I won't say join us on loop, because we're not a cult (mostly), but I will say that reading with us is a great way to peak behind the curtains at the publication process (though to be fair, our curtains are made of sheer, so it's not that secretive).

In the meantime, I hope you keep writing. The world needs it.Peace,Keene ShortEditor-in-ChiefAtticus Review

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

NEW FROM THE ATTIC

Staff recommendations for Banned Books Week.

READ ON

BOOK REVIEW 

Elise Levine's SAY THIS

Reviewed by Benjamin Selesnick

"SAY THIS artfully examines how one can get stuck in their traumatic past, and how the want of moving on can fall short."

READ ON

ISSUE FIVE SPOTLIGHTTRACEby Sara RyanREAD ON 

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Our Reading List is updated each week. Go check it out!Are you a contributor to Atticus Review who'd like your book featured in the reading list? Send us an email at [email protected]. 

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