All posts tagged: author

Marjane Satrapi, Author of PERSEPOLIS, Has Died at 56

Marjane Satrapi, Author of PERSEPOLIS, Has Died at 56

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Marjane Satrapi, Author of PERSEPOLIS, Has Died at 56 Iranian French author Marjane Satrapi has passed away at 56. The cause and location of her death have not been shared, but one thing is certain: the world of graphic memoir has lost a giant. Satrapi’s best-known work, Persepolis, was published in the early 2000s and showed millions of readers the lives of everyday Iranians during the Islamic Revolution. As our Senior Editor Kelly Jensen stated, its blend of memoir, history, and stunning artwork has helped bring about our current, brilliant era of graphic memoir. President Emmanuel Macron’s office released a statement on the author’s influence: “Her passing marks the loss of a leading figure in French culture and a freedom-loving artist whose work carried a universal message and earned her immense international acclaim.” Everand and Fable Merge Forces to Make One Mighty Subscription Service Last year, Everand (an online book subscription service and subsidiary of …

Hamnet author Maggie O’Farrell reveals she turned down an OBE for two reasons

Hamnet author Maggie O’Farrell reveals she turned down an OBE for two reasons

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Hamnet author Maggie O’Farrell has spoken about her reasons for turning down an OBE. The author of several acclaimed bestsellers, including her 2017 memoir I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death, has found herself in the spotlight more than ever after her 2020 novel, about the death of Shakespeare’s 11-year-old son, was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal this year. In a new interview with The Irish Times, O’Farrell spoke about her Irish background and why of all the prizes she has received, she felt compelled to reject the OBE. O’Farrell, 54, was born in Ireland in 1972 and moved with her family aged two to Wales before settling in Scotland. She currently lives in Edinburgh. Speaking about her forthcoming novel Land, which is set in the west of Ireland in 1865, O’Farrell …

We Asked the ‘Future of Truth’ Author to Explain How He Used AI. It Didn’t Go Well

We Asked the ‘Future of Truth’ Author to Explain How He Used AI. It Didn’t Go Well

Earlier this month, WIRED published an excerpt from Steve Rosenbaum’s buzzy new book, The Future of Truth, which looks at how artificial intelligence warps people’s sense of reality. Shortly thereafter, The New York Times reported that the book contained over a half-dozen made-up or misattributed quotes. In a statement, Rosenbaum, who has a master’s degree in “truth” from New York University, admitted that he had accidentally included “a handful” of “improperly attributed or synthetic” quotes. In an ironic twist, the veracity of a book about how AI impacts truth was now under intense scrutiny because of how its author had used AI. After the Times story broke, WIRED took another look at our 1,450-word excerpt. The fact-checking team had reviewed it prior to publication, and we reconfirmed that its quotes and facts were accurate. But WIRED’s generative AI editorial policy prohibits the publication of AI-generated and AI-edited writing, and a reader email calling out the excerpt as being “blatantly AI-written” raised further questions about the extent to which Rosenbaum had used AI tools. In The …

Humanists UK mourns Maureen Duffy (1933–2026), trailblazing author and first LGBT+ Humanists President – Humanists UK

Humanists UK mourns Maureen Duffy (1933–2026), trailblazing author and first LGBT+ Humanists President – Humanists UK

Humanists UK is deeply saddened to learn of the death of the pioneering writer, activist, and first President of LGBT+ Humanists, Maureen Duffy, aged 92. Born in 1933, in Worthing, Duffy attended King’s College London, where she earned a degree in English, graduating in 1956. She then worked as a teacher, freelance journalist, and copywriter before devoting herself to writing full-time in the 1960s. As one of the first people to fight for lesbian visibility in this country, Maureen’s courage and openness about her sexuality transformed gay and lesbian acceptance in the UK, breaking down barriers and prejudice, and giving confidence to other women like her to do the same. In 1962 she published her first novel, That’s How It Was, a semi-autobiographical account of growing up in post-World War II England. Her second novel, The Microcosm (1966), set in the famous lesbian Gateways club in London, was a feminist work that explored the lives of a group of women in 1960s London. It was considered the first ‘openly’ lesbian novel in English, and was …

Earth from Above author returns with astonishing freshwater images

Earth from Above author returns with astonishing freshwater images

The famous Tree of Life in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya © Yann Arthus-Bertrand In the parched terrain of Kenya’s Tsavo East National Park, the spiderweb of animal tracks that splay out from an ancient acacia, known as the Tree of Life, are reminiscent of roots. The scene is a reminder of the fragility of life’s connection to water. Animals come from far and wide to shelter under the shade of this solitary tree. The most marvellous thing about water is the infinite ways that life responds to it – a tree sends down roots, a canopy grows, animals converge, a landscape is marked. This image was captured by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, author of the bestselling photo book The Earth from Above, published in 1999. It is included in his new book, Freshwater (out 11 June), a look at the world through the lens of its freshwater systems, co-written with biologist Bill François. François says the tree shot is an “iconic picture from Yann’s work”. “A tree can spread 400 litres of fresh water a day …

The Unfilmable Author Everyone Should Read This Summer

The Unfilmable Author Everyone Should Read This Summer

Will we ever live to see a successful screen adaptation of a Terry Pratchett novel? The Amazon television series Good Omens, which ended this month, came closest—but that book, a comedy about an angel and a devil teaming up to avert Armageddon, was co-written with Neil Gaiman, and the source material ran out after the first season in any case. Pratchett is the funniest English writer since P. G. Wodehouse, with a sharp, satirical edge disguised by the trappings of the fantasy genre—vampires, dwarfs, witches, and wizards. Many fans thought the original covers of Pratchett’s novels went too heavy on busty maidens and strapping men with big swords, undermining their literary merit, and a similar problem has beset the various screen adaptations from Sky and the BBC. I suspect that casual viewers can’t compute the idea of watching something with the comic tone of a Charles Dickens or Tobias Smollett novel while being distracted by CGI trolls. To some extent, Good Omens bucked the trend because the chemistry between the lead actors, Michael Sheen and …

Israeli-Palestinian author duo: ‘We must break the cycle of violence’ – Perspective

Israeli-Palestinian author duo: ‘We must break the cycle of violence’ – Perspective

To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Accept Manage my choices One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Try again PERSPECTIVE © FRANCE 24 Issued on: 19/05/2026 – 15:33 12:18 min From the show Reading time 1 min A Palestinian and Israeli who have both lost family members in the conflict in the Middle East spoke to Perspective about their message of hope for the world. Aziz Abu Sarah is a Palestinian whose brother was killed by the Israeli military, and Maoz Inon an Israeli whose parents were killed by Hamas in October of 2023.  It was after their deaths, that Aziz reached out to Maoz, and from that moment grew their book “The future of Peace: A Shared Journey Across the Holy Land”, which is also now being launched in French as “La Paix est notre Avenir”. By: Source link

Sports Illustrated Deletes Entire Author After Accusation of AI Plagiarism

Sports Illustrated Deletes Entire Author After Accusation of AI Plagiarism

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Sports Illustrated deleted an author — and his entire archive of articles — from its website following allegations of AI plagiarism. Last week, the sports news site Sportico published an article featuring an original analysis of parlay bets made via the prediction market Kalshi. Two days later, on May 15, Sports Illustrated published an article — titled “Who is really winning on Kalshi parlays according to the data” — that regurgitated the same figures, without ever attributing the analysis to Sportico, as would be the normal and ethical thing to do. The Sports Illustrated piece only mentioned the other sports outlet when repeating a quote given to Sportico for a related article published back in 2025 — a quote that Sportico, tellingly, had called back to in its more recent piece. Sportico editor Dan Bernstein, who bylined the original piece, took to X on Sunday to accuse Sports Illustrated of plagiarism, suggesting in the post that AI may have been …

‘Wild’ author Cheryl Strayed mourns death of husband Brian Lindstrom

‘Wild’ author Cheryl Strayed mourns death of husband Brian Lindstrom

Brian Lindstrom, a filmmaker whose documentaries shined a light on society’s underdogs and inspired social change, has died. He was 65. Lindstrom’s wife, author Cheryl Strayed, confirmed the news on Instagram Friday. “Brian Lindstrom died this morning the way he lived — with gentleness and courage, grace and gratitude for his beautiful life,” she wrote. “Our children, Carver and Bobbi, and I held him as he took his last breath and we will hold him forever in our hearts. The only thing more immense than our sorrow that Progressive Supranuclear Palsy took our beloved Brian from us is the endless love we have for him.” According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, PSP is caused by damage to nerve cells in areas of the brain that control thinking and body movements. The rare neurological disease progresses rapidly. Strayed, who penned the bestselling memoir “Wild,” which was later adapted for the big screen and starred Reese Witherspoon, announced just weeks ago that Lindstrom had been diagnosed “with a serious, fatal illness.” Lindstrom was …

Rivals’ author Jilly Cooper remembered by the women who worked with her: ‘Well now, what’s repeatable?’

Rivals’ author Jilly Cooper remembered by the women who worked with her: ‘Well now, what’s repeatable?’

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter When Victoria Smurfit arrived at the first-ever readthrough for Rivals back in 2023, she was understandably terrified. Taking on the role of Rutshire Chronicles icon Maud O’Hara was already a daunting prospect, so entering a huge room full of British acting titans made it all the more nerve-wracking. However, there was one particular person who immediately put her at ease. “At the bottom of the stairs was Jilly Cooper, who I can only describe properly as Paddington Bear with a twinkle,” she says. “She just went, ‘My Maud!’ and gave me the biggest hug. She just had the ability to make everything better and everything safe. She was a cheerleader without the pom-poms.” Dame Jilly Cooper’s fictional world of polo shirts, perms and pert bottoms has finally bounced back onto our screens, as bonkbuster Rivals enters its second series. Posh male …