This week you have the delight of a Stephanie-only linkspam HAHAHA there’s not much because Liz has been working and Stephanie has been watching The Musketeers. Feel free to tell her how much you love Luke Pasqualino and/or Tamal from GBBO.
Publishers under pressure as China’s censors reach for red pen – about politics and writing.
Just over a decade ago, Sheng’s best-selling breakthrough novel, Northern Girls, was published uncensored in mainland China to critical acclaim.
But last month, as editors prepared to launch a third edition of the book, the author was informed that parts of her text were no longer publishable.
Austrailian Filmmakers Create Graphic Novel Australi About an Alt History Australia – does anyone know anything about this? How brown is this? It has a young Aboriginal boy, Maloo, as the main hero, which is nice, but also involves a lot of question mark question mark.
I am super into all the articles (USA, sigh) about how adorable GBBO is (because it is). The Great British Baking Show breaks all the reality TV rules. That’s why it’s so good. (This one answered the question of why it’s called the Great British Baking Show in the USA though.)
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Cancellation of College Production of ‘Jesus in India’ Over Casting of White Actors Prompts Debate
the school countering that the student actors on its rural, predominantly white campus were being “punished for their race.”
No
“Universal does not and should not mean white, or the privilege of ignoring race,” he said. “I wish it were not so difficult to accept that an actor of color, playing a character of color, could convey something universal.”
Actual perfection
“We are a small state school in western Pennsylvania, and trying to bring cultural diversity here is challenging,” she said. “I still believe what we did with this play was beautiful. It’s very unfortunate people won’t be get to see it.”
No Award looks forward to the inevitable white college production of Hamilton.
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Reading is great for everyone: Why convicted criminals inside Middleton Prison are reading Peppa Pig books
When prisoners read and record the stories, “it puts the family and the child at the forefront of their thinking.
“It gives them that purpose to get out, something to look forward to,” Rick continues.
The other benefit, Rick says, it that reading “improves their skills for being able to find employment, once they leave prison.
“We’ve had guys who, after taking on this program, have the confidence and ability to then sign themselves into education courses, which in the past they wouldn’t have even dreamt of doing,” he says.
LOVE IT.
related: interview with a prison librarian
no-award.net 
I am one of the backers for the Australi project on kickstarter, and I’ve had a short discussion with one of the creators (not sure which, because of the internet) about the Aboriginal nature of the story.
It is not a retelling of any specific myth, and it uses concepts that are not present in Aborignal stories basically because that’s how stories are told in English. The only direct example I’ve got (because we are discussing a story that doesn’t exist yet) is the prophecy. I don’t know of any examples of prophecies in Aboriginal myths, and I get the feeling from the myths that their concept of the “future” is different to the English concept, so a prophecy isn’t a thing that can happen within their worldview. Not using an existing myth as a base may be a good thing, as many Aborignal myths consist entirely of lying, cheating and stealing.
Several concepts from the myths do make it into the story. Myths from the Dreaming are always full of creatures which are human and also animals, or who turn into animals, or maybe were always animals depending on the region and the translator. By being set after the colonisation or Australia it gets more leeway with this, because that can be considered the point where the Dreaming (the accumulated Aboriginal culture) broke down. It also allows the story to discuss the founding myths of “White” Australia that came out of the interaction between European settlers and Aboriginal tribes. Other concepts that have been shown so far like the bizarre massive animals and the abundant resources are closer to historical truth then myth.
To see how well the authors do, we of course have to wait for the finished product. I am supporting it no matter how they handle it, because as it currently stands nobody is telling these stories, and I think they are stories we need to tell to build a better cultural identity.