jonathan dillard’s Post

A powerful reminder of why reading matters. At Nile Publishing, we see reading as more than a pastime. It is a bridge into other lives, cultures, and ways of thinking. It builds empathy, sharpens imagination, and strengthens the human connection in a way few things can. As both readers and creators, we believe the responsibility is shared. Encouraging reading must go hand in hand with producing stories that resonate, challenge, and inspire. Supporting initiatives like this is essential, because the future of reading depends not only on access, but on intention.

Authors including Stella Prize winner Evelyn Araluen have cut ties with publisher University of Queensland Press (UQP) after it scrapped publication of an Indigenous author's picture book. Araluen said she would be terminating any further projects and contracts with the publisher because of the "shameful and abhorrent decision to pulp the work of a fellow Aboriginal storyteller without due process, communication, respect or consideration....You have made a decision today to destroy culture, to destroy story, and to destroy any pretence of integrity UQP might have once held in the community," she wrote. Authors Randa Abdel-Fattah, Melissa Lucashenko, Omar Sakr, Sara Haddad, Dženana Vucic and Natalia Figueroa Barroso have also said they would stop publishing with UQP following the decision not to publish Money and Chun's book. https://lnkd.in/eYg-qzn8

Here is the practical advice that finally worked for me. Write your current opening. Then write a second opening that begins one paragraph later. Then write a third that begins one chapter later. Read all three side by side. The opening the reader needs is almost always the one you considered cutting because it felt too late. Your best opening is two pages in. The page you wrote first is the page where you were still trying to prove the world. The page two pages later is the page where you stopped proving and started telling. That is the page the reader actually needs. This week's Archivist is the full essay. https://lnkd.in/ertCskNE #TheParasiteWars #SFF #AmWriting #WritingCommunity

Opinion Why do Well-Meaning Developmental Policies so Often Fail? William D. Ferguson introduces his new book outlining a conceptual framework for policy-relevant inquiry into the roots and consequences of developmental dilemmas. https://lnkd.in/es9r-8ca

THE CALLING — An ALLA Publication publishes its second essay today. "Not everyone who enjoys reading is A Reader." The essay draws a precise distinction between casual readers and The Readers — those whose relationship to great stories is closer to necessity than to leisure — and connects that distinction directly to ALLA's editorial mission and the books the press is building toward. As ALLA continues to document the real-time build of an independent press devoted to literary-commercial fiction of cultural depth and narrative power, this essay establishes who the press is publishing for and why that matters institutionally. Read the full essay in THE CALLING at the link in the first comment. Art is life. Life is art.

Types of gaps to identify | A clip from my Substack post, Gaps in the Literature | Part 3, Ep 5. Watch it here: https://lnkd.in/gGbnFaan

Five (more) books to become disgustingly well-educated: 📚 Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, by Walter Kaufmann 📚 How to Read Literature Like a Professor, by Thomas C. Foster 📚 The History of Philosophy, by A.C. Grayling 📚 The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov 📚 The Outsider, by Colin Wilson Full summaries and my complete book notes from each one right here (free): https://lnkd.in/ewnTqBEz 👈

Still rounding out your 2026 reading list? 📚 In the third installment of the Novels on Authoritarian Rule book review series, UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) Research Director and GPS Professor Emeritus Stephan Haggard, along with Matthew Draper, share five novels that illuminate the stark realities of autocratic rule. From historical fiction and imagined memoirs to the long tradition of political dystopia, these literary works provide a unique lens into the complexities of authoritarianism that academic texts alone cannot always capture. Explore the latest recommendations on the IGCC blog: https://ow.ly/W9uw50YGL6r #UCSanDiego #GPSFaculty #Authoritarianism #GlobalConflict #BookRecommendations #PublicPolicy #PoliticalScience

Check out our partner UIA's Newsletter! Among other relevant topics, what is the impact and importance of books in our civil society? 📚

The list of history’s best-selling books reveals a defining pattern: global scale is driven less by market dynamics alone and more by institutional reach, belief systems, and state-supported distribution. In this context, the Bible and the Quran hold unmatched impact due to longevity and global adherence. Fiction and modern publishing successes, though influential, operate on fundamentally different mechanics, market demand rather than systemic mandate. Ultimately, the list is less a ranking of literary merit and more a map of how power, belief, education, and governance shape what the world reads, and how widely those words travel. Sources: James Clear Articles, Guinness World Records, and more. #bookday