Illiteracy in the Literary World

The process toward this year's National Book Awards in the U.S. has been a comedy of errors. The prestigious literary prizes have been tarnished by a singularly incompetent nominating procedure. To wit, meaning to nominate a book titled Chime, they notified the author of Shine. Aware of their mistake, they first decided to include both, although it expanded the category from the five nominees mandated by the rules to six. Then, they reconsidered, and asked the author of Shine to withdraw from the contest.


Which poses the question: Don't these literary people know how to read? How could they confuse Chime with Shine? Furthermore, what kind of solution was that, of acting against the rules, just to cover up their mistake? Maybe they didn't know how to read the rules either.

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