News Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction Anne de Marcken’s It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over Wins 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction The selection panel called it “a work of quietly detonative imagination.” By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on October 21, 2024 Photo of Anne de Marcken by Nina Subin. It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over cover design by Pablo Delcan with illustration by Denise Nestor. Comment 0 Share New Share Photo of Anne de Marcken by Nina Subin. It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over cover design by Pablo Delcan with illustration by Denise Nestor. The Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation has announced the winner of its 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, which gives a $25,000 cash prize to the author of a book-length work of fiction that shows the writer is a realist “of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now.” This year, the selection panel— Margaret Atwood, Omar El Akkad, Megan Giddings, Ken Liu, and Carmen Maria Machado—selected Anne De Marcken’s It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over as the winner. “It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over is a work of quietly detonative imagination,” the panel said in a statement. “Written in the guise of a zombie novel, it quickly reveals itself to be a deeply felt meditation on the many afterlives of memory, the strange disorienting space where our pasts go to disintegrate. As the heroine wanders a shattered world, clutching a dead crow that is still muttering away, she becomes an incarnation of grief—its numbness and regrets and heartbreaks—and of the inevitability of our decline: we are what we lose. Haunting, poignant, and surprisingly funny, Anne de Marcken’s book is a tightly written tour de force about what it is to be human.” In her own statement, de Marcken shared that Le Guin’s Earthsea books were where she first “recognized my own experience of life, complicated and shadowy and potent-feeling, filled with imminent magic.” She added, “I took it with me into life, and I feel it still today. And it’s how I write, toward a feeling. I think Ursula K. Le Guin taught me this. So my first thanks goes to her. Thank you to Ursula K. Le Guin for helping me to become the writer that I wanted to be, and thank you for this prize.” It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over came out on March 5, 2024 via New Directions Publishing. Congratulations to de Marcken and the previously announced short list recipients for this year’s award.[end-mark] The post Anne de Marcken’s <i>It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over</i> Wins 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction appeared first on Reactor.

Blog The Penguin “That’s what I do, I fix things” — The Penguin’s “Homecoming” By Sarah Tolf | Published on October 21, 2024 Credit: Macall Polay/HBO Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Macall Polay/HBO The daughter of crime boss Carmine “The Roman” Falcone, Sofia, was established in the comics in the miniseries Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale. Sofia, whose married name was Gigante, was a large woman, devoted to her father. At the end of the miniseries, she falls out of a high-story window in a fight with Catwoman. She survives, and we see her in Loeb & Sale’s followup miniseries, Batman: Dark Victory, in a wheelchair, her head held immobile by metal rods. Dark Victory is about the Hangman murderer, who kills corrupt cops, revealed in the end to be Sofia, whose injuries were not as bad as she let on. She is killed in the end by Two-Face—who is the prime suspect for the Hangman murders for much of the miniseries. The Penguin has both used and not used the comics as a template for the screen versions of the Falcone family that we first saw in The Batman. There are still Hangman murders, but they’re of women, not cops, and instead of Sofia being the surprise culprit after a long mystery story, she is instead the one everyone believes did it, though the true culprit was her father. In addition, rather than having her marry a Gigante, we have Gigante be her mother’s maiden name which—having killed almost the entire Falcone family last week—she claims as her own, declaring the Falcone family to be dead. Loeb & Sale’s Sofia was a strong woman whose full strength was hidden from the reader until the last minute. Cristin Milioti’s version of the character is one whose strength has been front and center for two straight episodes now. “Homecoming” is all about both Penguin and Sofia consolidating their power bases and dealing blows to their enemies. What’s especially interesting is that, despite whose show this is, Penguin is the one who has several setbacks, where Sofia’s plans all go perfectly. More impressive is the body count. I did not expect both Nadia Maroni and Johnny Viti to be taken off the table five episodes in, but Penguin burns Nadia to a crisp and Sofia—after sparing Johnny from the gassing in order to use him to gather the remnants of the family—shoots her uncle in the head. On one level, this is disappointing, as Michael Kelly and especially Shohreh Aghdashloo are fantastic actors. Before being executed, Kelly’s Johnny gives a very heartfelt account to Sofia about what actually happened to his sister, Sofia’s mother: she was going to run away from Carmine, and Johnny was even going to facilitate it, but Carmine killed her and made it look like suicide instead. (Sofia is less than impressed with Johnny’s sorrow on the subject, given that he’s spent the decades since being Carmine’s underboss.) Credit: Macall Polay/HBO Penguin, meanwhile, needs to get the mushrooms from which Bliss is harvested back from the Maronis. So he kidnaps Sal and Nadia Maroni’s son Taj—who is kind enough to post on TikTok, so they know where he is—and ransom him for the mushrooms. The Maronis expect a double cross, so there’s an ambush, but Penguin anticipated that and doused Taj in gasoline. When he embraces his mother, Penguin lights a match on the gas trail he left, and mother and son are burned alive. But the warehouse where they meet has fire suppression, which ruins most of the mushrooms. He only has two barrels… That’s the first setback; the second is worse. He bribes a corrections officer to shank Sal Maroni, but Maroni gets the better of the CO and uses his keys to break out of jail. And Sofia’s first order of business, once she shoots Johnny and gets her house in order, is to propose an alliance between the Gigantes and the Maronis. I was not entirely convinced by this revelation in the story sense—a set of keys is, um, not enough to get you out of a twenty-first-century prison—but I was relieved in an aesthetic sense, as I didn’t want to also lose Clancy Brown in the episode that already cost us Aghdashloo and Kelly. (Plus, this leaves Maroni free to be arrested, put on trial, and put in a position to throw acid at Harvey Dent’s face…) Penguin’s third setback is personal. He goes for comfort to the two most important women in his life, Eve and his mother, and is denied both times. Eve loves Penguin, but won’t put herself in danger for him and she rejects him, telling him to fix his shit. She’ll take care of herself and of her girls. After that, he goes to his mom. For her safety, he has Vic take her out of her house to somewhere safe, and Vic picks Crown Point, the neighborhood most devastated by the flood at the climax of The Batman. When Penguin tries to take comfort from her, Francis just bitingly asks what kind of son can’t take care of his mother (never mind that take care of her is, like, all he’s ever done…). Tellingly, both Penguin and Sofia are able to gather forces loyal to them by the simple expediency of being good to the help. We’d already seen this with Penguin, as we saw him throwing a party for the people who survived the Maroni attack on the drops shipment. Oz Cobb knows where he came from, and hasn’t forgotten that, and part of why he’s been successful is that the rank-and-file are loyal to him, because he was one of them, and he remembers his roots. They know he’ll be there for them, so they’re there for him. Sofia does something similar. She can’t relate to the hired help the way Penguin can, but she doesn’t have to. For one thing, she had all her loyalty to the bosses of the family drained out of her by ten years in Arkham prompted by several family members lying in affidavits about Sofia’s nonexistent history of mental illness. For another—and this is why she kept Johnny alive for a bit—she has her father’s cash stash, which she distributes to the lower ranks. The episode has a welcome guest star in the great Con O’Neill, reprising his role as the GCPD Police Chief Bock that he also played in The Batman. O’Neill—recently seen being brilliant in Our Flag Means Death as the terminally loyal Izzy Hands—gives a wonderfully cagey performance. It wasn’t clear in the movie whether or not Bock was one of the dirty cops, and it’s not clear here, either. This storyline takes place before Jim Gordon is elevated to commissioner and able to at least curb the GCPD’s corrupt excesses, and Bock has no comics equivalent to use as a potential signpost as to his status. Of course, this could just be a case of convenient casting because O’Neill was available, but it might be interesting to see Bock play a role in the gang war to come, as either a good cop or a bad cop, since we still don’t know for sure what type of cop he is. We end with Oz finding the headquarters from which he will fight the war that’s about to break out between Penguin and the Gigante/Maroni alliance. A jar his mother kept with coins in it includes an old Gotham trolley car token. The underground trolley system was abandoned when Penguin was a kid, a victim of political corruption, and he and his now-dead brothers used to play in the tunnels. There’s a huge station down there, long abandoned and forgotten, that is the perfect headquarters for Penguin—especially since it’s dank and humid and therefore perfect for growing mushrooms…[end-mark] The post “That’s what I do, I fix things” — <i>The Penguin</i>’s “Homecoming” appeared first on Reactor.

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Leaked U.S. intelligence documents allegedly outline how Israel plans to strike Iran soon, according to multiple reports. Israel is expected to retaliate against Iran after the terrorism-supporting nation launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles into Israeli territory on Oct. 1. Most of those missiles were intercepted. The timing and nature of Israel’s plan to retaliate against Iran have been shrouded in mystery, until now. U.S. intelligence documents that were leaked publicly in recent days revealed Israel’s preparatory actions ahead of the attacks, according to several reports. It isn’t clear how the documents were leaked or who was behind the move to release them publicly. An investigation has been opened to determine how the documents were leaked, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., confirmed Sunday, according to Reuters. “If it is true that Israeli tactical plans to respond to Iran’s attack on Oct. 1 have been leaked, it is a serious breach,” Mick Mulroy, a former CIA officer, told CNN. “Future coordination between the U.S. and Israel could be challenged as well. Trust is a key component in the relationship, and depending on how this was leaked, that trust could be eroded.” The documents were highly classified and only meant to be seen by the U.S. and a handful of other Western nations, including the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, according to reports. The intelligence was created by the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. According to the documents, Israel may be planning to conduct surface-to-air missile strikes as well as airborne strikes. Israel is reportedly positioning its military assets in preparation for the possible strike, according to several reports. The possible strike against Iran has been somewhat of a contentious issue between the Biden-Harris administration and the Israeli government. While the administration has agreed that Israel has a right to respond, it has openly said that it would not approve if Israel strikes Iranian nuclear facilities, and has advocated against going after the country’s oil sites. Israel’s current war in the Middle East began with Hamas, which invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and killed roughly 1,200 people. Since then, the conflict has broadened and drawn in other actors, such as Hezbollah and Iran. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post ‘Serious Breach’: Alleged US Intel Docs Outlining Israel’s Plan to Strike Iran Leaked appeared first on The Daily Signal.

As I Said, This Election Is About Class, Not Race Or Party

These weather oscillations persisted even at a time when the continents were distributed differently, the modelling shows.

Immigrant students are given a much easier grading scale at a school in Springfield, Ohio, effectively preventing them from failing because they are still considered English "language learners," an email from the superintendent confirms.A high school principal in the Northwestern Local Schools district previously sent an email to staff members at Northwestern Jr./Sr. High School, instructing them not to give so-called "English language learners" — often referred to as ELL students — a grade lower than a "C," Superintendent Jeff Patrick confirmed in an email obtained by Blaze News.'It seems like a better solution might be possible.'"The email [from the principal] did indeed state not to give our ELL students any grade under a 'C' based on the fact that for the first three years in an Ohio School system, ELL students are considered to be Language Learners," Patrick wrote in the email dated October 9.Blaze News reached out to Patrick and asked a series of questions, including whether ELL students received passing grades even if they failed to turn in assignments and/or attend class as required. Patrick did not respond.However, Patrick did indicate in the email viewed by Blaze News that the grading policy at the school may soon be changed. "It seems like a better solution might be possible, so I have given our Director of Instruction and his team of Administrators the task of coming up with a better solution to this grading issue," he wrote.The grading scale in the online version of the school handbook is not currently accessible, but prospective graduates of Northwestern Jr./Sr. High School must earn at least 21.5 credits and "demonstrate competency in math and English by passing the state’s algebra I and English II tests" or through other approved means.As Patrick did not respond to any of Blaze News' questions, it is unclear whether students who are U.S. citizens and native speakers of English received failing grades while their ELL counterparts could not. U.S. News and World Report claims that Northwestern Jr./Sr. High School has a graduation rate of greater than 95%, which suggests that at least a few students have failed to graduate. The outlet cited government data for its report but did not clarify when that data was collected.The student handbook also warns that chronically truant students and their parents or guardians may face prosecution at a local municipal court. Truancy may even affect a student's ability to acquire a state driver's license, even though some of the city's 20,000 Haitian immigrants have been caught driving without a license.Springfield, Ohio, has been in the national spotlight for more than a year after an unlicensed Haitian immigrant there crashed into a school bus, killing 11-year-old Aiden Clark.At the presidential debate last month, former President Donald Trump also suggested that some of the Haitian immigrants in Springfield are eating pets. Democrats balked at the suggestion, but statements from Springfield residents indicate that maltreatment of wildlife is a problem in the area."I [saw] a group of Haitian people — there was about four of them — and all had geese in their hand," one resident stated during a 911 call on August 26.Anthony Harris, a 28-year-old Springfield resident, said at an August city council meeting: "They're in the park grabbing up ducks by their neck and cutting their head off and walking off with them and eating them.""I don't know how y'all can be comfortable with this."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

With just 15 days before Election Day, the media and Democrats are trying to paint Donald Trump as a candidate mentally unfit for the White House. Despite covering up President Joe Biden's obvious mental decline for years, Democrats and the media are now trying to make a story out of Trump's mental fitness, claiming he, too, is experiencing a level of cognitive decline that disqualifies him from the presidency. 'The 2024 Trump seems more confident and is certainly more knowledgeable about policy than he was in 2015.'The evidence of mental decline, Trump's critics claim, revolves around his speeches. At his campaign rallies, Trump often speaks off the cuff for long periods of time, which his critics see as incoherent rambling and proof of mental decline. Here are some recent headlines: MSNBC: "‘Unintelligible’: Trump’s mental decline on display in final stretch to election" The New Republic: "Trump’s Mental Decline Finally Becomes Big Media Story" NBC News: "Trump's bizarre music session reignites questions about his mental acuity" The Week: "Is Trump okay?" Los Angeles Times: "In final stretch, Harris revives attacks on Trump as ‘unstable’ and mentally unfit for office" New York Times: "Trump’s Speeches, Increasingly Angry and Rambling, Reignite the Question of Age" Cornell University: "Trump’s abrupt decision to play DJ, a sign of ‘accelerating cognitive decline’ says Cornell expert" Forbes: "Trump’s Unwieldy Speeches Raise Questions About His Mental Acuity" Boston Globe: "Trump’s decline is too dangerous to ignore" But the editorial board at the Wall Street Journal says, in their firsthand experience, that is not true.In fact, not only does the Journal's editorial board not believe that Trump is experiencing the cognitive decline that Democrats and the media claim is happening, but they observed that Trump is sharper today than he was nearly a decade ago.The editors of the Journal reported their observation with confidence last Friday, one day after Trump met with them.From the WSJ editorial board:Lately Mr. Trump’s detractors have been speculating about his 'mental decline.' There’s no sign of such slippage in our Thursday meeting. The 2024 Trump seems more confident and is certainly more knowledgeable about policy than he was in 2015. His discursive style of talking can confuse listeners, but that was equally true nine years ago, and he never appears lost in his thoughts the way President Biden repeatedly did in their June debate. Not only do the editors at WSJ see no evidence of Trump's purported mental decline, but people who spend time with him deny it, too.It's rich, after all, for the institutions and people who for years ignored Biden's mental decline now to suddenly demonstrate concern about a candidate's mental fitness. The American people see through the charade.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

When Liz Wheeler invited cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough on the show to discuss his research on the corruption in the medical industry, especially regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, she had a feeling the episode would be censored by YouTube. And she was right. All Liz was able to post was a tiny clip of her conversation with Dr. McCullough. In the 30-second clip she was able to play, it’s clear why YouTube, which we know has sold out at the expense of preserving free speech, would shoot down Liz’s episode. - YouTube www.youtube.com Here are just two lines from Dr. McCullough: “The vaccines – it’s like a religious belief, and if you confront somebody on their religious belief, you know around the time of an election, people are going to start to react badly.” “Think about the transgender disaster that’s going on right now and being promoted by HHS. Think about the corruption in the CDC, the NIH, and FDA. We’re looking at a major house cleaning and a change in philosophy oriented toward patient safety and freedom of choice — medical freedom of choice, free of mandates and other types of constraints.” “YouTube won’t let me play the rest of my episode,” Liz laments, adding that the “conversation with Dr. McCullough is fascinating.” Unfortunately, Liz “can't even tell you the topics [they] discussed without risking a strike.” However, you can watch the full episode, which covers Dr. McCullough’s work on COVID, medical freedom, and cardiology, as well as his explanation on how deadly the COVID vaccine is and what individuals who received the jab can do to protect themselves. The episode also includes Liz and Dr. McCullough’s discussion over what the medical establishment might look like under a potential second Trump administration, what's on the horizon for patients, doctors, and all Americans, and Dr. McCullough’s take on RFK Jr.'s plan to "Make America Healthy Again.” To learn how you can watch the episode in its entirety, check out the clip above. Want more from Liz Wheeler?To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Angela Rye said white voters should face consequences for not saving democracy if Vice President Kamala Harris does not win the upcoming presidential election. CNN host Victor Blackwell asked Rye about former President Barack Obama chastising black men for hesitating to vote for Harris. "I think that it's wonderful that President Obama is out hitting the trail for democracy, frankly," Rye initially replied. "And what I think is a mistake is to let white folks escape the accountability that they must face for not showing up to save democracy themselves. Like, they want to get mad at presidential candidates, right, when they don‘t wear a flag lapel pin or they don‘t see you pledging allegiance to the flag."Rye claimed white people view the "terrorist attack on January 6, 2021," at the Capitol building as a demonstration of patriotism, so "the responsibility of saving democracy should be on the largest demographic in this country. "That is white men and white women."Similar to other demographics that go for Democrats during presidential elections, Harris has been struggling in the polls with black voters.Rye pointed to efforts in Detroit to talk with voters about the economy and "ensuring that democracy is preserved even if it's not perfect. We're doing our part. It's time for white folks to turn their ire and their attention to each other to ensure they also do their part.“ Similar to other demographics that go for Democrats during presidential elections, Harris has been struggling in the polls with black voters when compared to President Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Obama.The New York Times reported that while Harris is expected to a win an outright majority of black voters, only 78% of black voters are expected to vote for her, compared to 90% for Biden in 2020 and 92% for Clinton in 2016. Part of the reason for the erosion of support for Harris among black voters is that many believe Democrats have not done enough to support their communities despite receiving their votes. That feeling has only been exacerbated by the influx of illegal immigrants in big cities and the money being spent on them instead of inner-city communities. "Forty percent of African-American voters under 30 said the Republican Party was more likely to follow through on its campaign commitments than Democrats were," the NYT explained.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The members of the "Central Park Five" have filed a defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump over comments he made about the case during his debate in Philadelphia. The infamous case involved the brutal rape and beating of a jogger in New York City in 1989, and five teenagers were charged and convicted for the crime. Some initially confessed but later recanted and said they had been coerced into confessing. The five served time in prison until someone else confessed to the crime and was confirmed through DNA evidence. Police argued that the five were still involved, but city officials released them. 'This is just another frivolous, Election Interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists.' Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris tried to use the case during the debate to accuse Trump of racism because he had called for the death penalty to be brought back in a full-page newspaper ad two weeks after the brutal attack. Trump defended himself against the claims, but the lawsuit alleges he did so in a defamatory manner and made several false claims. "They come up with things like what she just said going back many, many years when a lot of people, including Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg, agreed with me on the Central Park Five. They admitted — they said, they pled guilty," said Trump during the debate. "And I said, 'Well, if they pled guilty, they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately,'" he added. "And if they pled guilty — then they pled, 'We're not guilty.'"The lawsuit points out that none of the five had actually entered guilty pleas and no one in the case had been killed. Also the mayor at the time was not Bloomberg but Ed Koch, who disagreed with Trump about the case, according to the lawsuit. "Defendant Trump's conduct at the September 10 debate was extreme and outrageous, and it was intended to cause severe emotional distress to Plaintiffs," read the lawsuit. "Plaintiffs demand judgment against Defendant Donald J. Trump for compensatory damages, for punitive damages and for costs."A spokesperson for the Trump campaign minimized the lawsuit in a statement to ABC News. "This is just another frivolous, Election Interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists," read the statement. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!