Weekly Roundup for 3/8/13

Every Friday, the Akashic team highlights industry news, reviews, and features from around the web. This week’s roundup comes to you from Akashic editorial assistant Susannah Lawrence and intern Deanna Hoffmann.

Around the Web

Emeline Michel: Quintessence, part of The Healing Voices of Haiti, has two SOLD OUT shows at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse this weekend (March 8^th & 9^th). Akashic intern Deanna Hoffmann will be at the Friday show to sell copies of Haiti Noir, edited by Edwidge Danticat. Be sure to stop by and say hello!

Treeless Paper! Check out what Canopy‘s doing to transform books and the planet. Signed special editions of Life of Pi and Dear Life, printed on paper made from left over straw rather than trees, can be purchased to support Canopy’s campaign to protect the world’s forests.

Plus, Awagami Factory makes beautiful Washi (Japanese paper) that is inkjet printer–ready, so you can go treeless in your own home.

We were fascinated by “The Country that Stopped Reading,” an insightful and convicting op-ed from the New York Times about literacy in Mexican schools. (Also a must-read from the New York Times this week: “Nora Ephron’s Final Act” by her son, Jacob Bernstein.)

The #FictionalCharactersIWantToMarry hashtag has been sweeping across Twitter. Who’s on your list?

Have you seen this awesome idea to create ‘subway libraries’? Three students in Miami have come up with this idea in which commuters would have access to the first 10 pages of certain books, and would then receive directions to the nearest library where they could read the rest. Check out their video!

This design for a ready-to-burn copy of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 includes its own match. What other clever book designs do you love?

Around the Office

SXSW is this weekend down in Austin, TX so we’ve asked around the office to find out what artists we’d be rocking out to if we could make it to the Lone Star state.

Johnny: Edsel, Thurston Moore, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. *And for what it’s worth, each of these bands/musicians has contributed in some way to Akashic books!
Johanna: is excited to see Edsel, Thurston Moore, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs too (and will be dragging Johnny and Ibrahim to see Dave Grohl’s AWESOME documentary, Sound City, which is playing at different times throughout the festival.)
Ibrahim: Edsel
Aaron will be holding down the Akashic fort up north because “Petrovich does not rock out. Ever. Not even when referring to himself in the third person.”
Kate: Ra Ra Riot
Susannah: Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I blame Johanna for infecting me with a perpetual (but awesome!) It’s Blitz! earworm.
Deanna will be fist pumping to Sirah, DJ Earworm, and f(x)

Posted: Mar 8, 2013

Category: Weekly Roundup | Tags: Deanna Hoffmann, Edwidge Danticat, Haiti Noir, Susannah Lawrence, Weekly Roundup