Round-Up: Hate Crimes in Public Libraries, R.L. Stine’s New Comic, and Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize Speech
From the increase in hate crimes in public libraries to Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, here are last week’s biggest literary headlines:
- In recent weeks, public libraries have seen a rise in hate crimes. Reported incidents include the defacement of books about Islam with racist language and imagery, anti-Semitic graffiti, and the attempted removal of a student’s hijab. As a result of the increase, the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has begun to formally track the crimes.
- Author of the Goosebumps series R.L. Stine has signed on with Marvel to write a five-issue comic. It will be based on Marvel’s Man-Thing and will see its first release in February of 2017. Stine chose to work with Man-Thing because “swamp monsters are just a basic horror. What could be more basic than something rising up from the muck?”
- The 2016 Nobel Prize Award Ceremony took place on Saturday, December 10. Bob Dylan, as he had previously announced, did not attend. In his place, Azita Raji, the US Ambassador to Sweden, read his acceptance speech. In order to receive the award, with its prize money, Nobel laureates must give a lecture on their subject within six months of the ceremony.
