Writers and Editors

The following dispatches and quotes about the late beloved Marc Pachter are posted here on my Writers and Editors blog partly to make it easy for Marc's friends and colleagues to post comments. Marc died after a yearlong celebration of his 80th birthday, filled with travels to his favorite people, haunts, and cultural hotspots in Asia, Europe, South America, and the United States.

 

You can watch the Memorial service for Marc Pachter, April 13, 2024 (video online), held at the National Portrait Gallery.

 

• Marc Pachter, Who Revived National Portrait Gallery, Dies at 80 (Sam Roberts, NY Times, 2-23-24)
     Marc Pachter, who transformed the National Portrait Gallery in Washington from a collection primarily of solemn paintings of old white men into a more up-to-date museum that now includes illustrations and interviews with diverse living luminaries, died on Feb. 17 in Bangkok. He was 80.
     The cause was cardiac arrest, his son, Adam, said. Mr. Pachter, who [after many years of living in Washington DC] lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, died in a hospital while vacationing in Thailand.
     As director of the Portrait Gallery from 2000 to 2007, Mr. Pachter presided over a $300 million renovation that reimagined the museum while maintaining its artistic integrity.

     A memorial service was held at the National Portrait Gallery on Saturday, April 13, at 9 am in the Kugod Courtyard (at 8th and G Streets NW, DC).

     It was a beautiful day in a beautiful setting, and it was particularly nice to hear Marc's son and daughter, Adam and Gillian, talk about life with their delightfully nontraditional father.

 

• Marc's memorable talk on the Living Self Portrait Series (Marc Pachter, Director Emeritus, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (EG3) February, 2008)

     If you listen to nothing else, listen to this lecture. Marc started to worry about the fact that people didn't get their portraits painted anymore, so he came up with the remarkable Living Self-Portrait Series. As a cultural historian, Marc conducted live interviews with some of the most intriguing characters in recent American history as part of this series created for the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.  In this talk he reveals the secret to a great interview and shares extraordinary stories of talking with Steve Martin, Clare Booth Luce and more. 

         In celebrating great American lives, Marc preferred sprawling, messy cities like LA and Berlin to beautiful self-regarding ones like SF and Paris, but these portraits were of Americans of a certain age (60s thru 90s), the idea being to sit at the feet of people who "know how the story turned out. It's amazing what people will say when they know how the story turns out."  Marc  is particularly interesting on how to do interviews that are different--that are empathic, that feel like what people want to say.  He talks about qualities in the interview subject that made them more interesting (or boring) and about what his best and worst moments were in creating the series.  In a sense, this is also a living portrait of Marc.

       This is also available as The art of the interview (Marc Pachter, video with transcript, listed withTed Talks, January 2008)

        Marc is profiled here as a cultural historian.

• Marc Pachter: Remembering a Mentor and Friend (Gordon H. "Nick" Mueller, President & CEO Emeritus of The National World War II Museum, 2-23-24) Mueller mourns the loss of friend and colleague Marc Pachter. "A talent in the museum world such as Marc comes along only once in a generation. His passion for history, art, and culture were unmatched, and his exuberance was highly infectious. Mueller writes about Marc's contributions to the museum world.

• Marc Pachter, museum chief who led race to save Washington portrait, dies at 80 - The Washington Post
"Marc Pachter, an American cultural historian at the Smithsonian Institution who as director of the National Portrait Gallery led a nail-biting scramble for donors in 2001 that kept a famed painting of George Washington from leaving the collection for possible auction, died Feb. 17 in Bangkok. He was 80. He had a heart attack at an apartment he rented during an extended stay in Thailand, said his son, Adam Pachter.
     "Mr. Pachter described himself as a “a teller of lives” in his roles across the Smithsonian system, including overseeing a top-to-bottom renovation of the Portrait Gallery as director from 2000 to 2007. As director of the National Portrait Gallery in 2001, he hunted for a donor to keep a famed painting of Washington in the collection. He found one."

• In Memoriam: Marc Pachter 1943–2024 (National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 2-21-24) "Marc Pachter's distinguished career at the Smithsonian spanned more than thirty-three years. In addition to being the National Portrait Gallery's director, he served as the museum’s chief historian and assistant director. Marc was the Smithsonian assistant secretary for external affairs, chair of the Smithsonian’s 150th anniversary celebration in 1996, and acting director of the National Museum of American History." And more, about his career with the Smithsonian.

• Q&A with Marc Pachter (C-SPAN, 12-12-07, 58 minutes) A fascinating Q&A. Marc Pachter talked with Brian Lamb about his work at the National Portrait Gallery and the operations of the Smithsonian Institution. He retired in 2007 after 33 years at the Smithsonian, where he served as chief historian and assistant director at the Portrait Gallery, acting director of the National Museum of American History, as well as deputy assistant secretary for external affairs and chair of the Smithsonian's 150th anniversary celebration in 1996.

     Asked about being interviewed: "Well, I just told my son, Adam, that it's the first time I've ever been nervous on stage. It's because, when you're the interviewer, you're in control of the situation and when you're being interviewed, suddenly I realize, or whether you're being portrayed in a portrait or written about in a biography, somebody else is in charge of your life, so it's interesting."

    The worst quality in an interviewee, says Marc: Modesty.

    About his education: 'Berkeley made me lucid.'

    His ex-wife Lisa put his finger on why they never loved Washington DC: "It lacks a sense of healing irony. This is a very literal place." But the opportunities it gave him he would forever be grateful for.

---See Additional C-SPAN interviews with Marc.

 
• “History Is A Construct. A Lot Happened, But What Do We Remember From It?” (Heather Jaber and Nicole Bogart, Salzburg Global News, 1-29-18) As a historian and former museum director of the National Portrait Gallery, Marc Pachter was tasked with signifying achievement in American culture. “This used to be very easy… White men on horses, usually generals or Presidents,” he explains.

     “True history began with thinking of race and gender in general. But... the road was still stopping short of LGBT questions – also part of the reveal of what a culture really is.” During his tenure at the Gallery in Washington, DC, Pachter, a multi-time Fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar, "was involved in introducing the controversial HIDE/SEEK exhibition to the National Portrait Gallery in which homosexuality was depicted as a core theme in the work of many American artists. He believes national museums play an important role in signaling a growing consensus within society to discuss the history of LGBT communities. Moreover, including those exhibitions acknowledge that LGBT rights and visibility are not new issues – they have always existed in history."
---Marc Pachter on history as a construct: What do we remember from it? (YouTube video, Salzburg Global Seminar, 9-30-15) Marc Pachter in conversation with Salzburg Global LGBT Forum Chair Dr. Klaus Mueller on public readiness for using lenses of race, gender, and sexuality on history.

      As explained on the Gallery’s website, the exhibition (developed by a team under his successor), which ran from October 2010 to November 2011, was “the first major museum exhibition to focus on sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture. HIDE/SEEK considers such themes as the role of sexual difference in depicting modern America; how artists explored the fluidity of sexuality and gender; how major themes in modern art--especially abstraction--were influenced by social marginalization; and how art reflected society's evolving and changing attitudes toward sexuality, desire, and romantic attachment.”

      “It boils down to invisibility; history is a construct; lots happened, but what do we remember from it?” Pachter says. “And that we chose as a nation not to think about it says a lot. The history was always there… People that were not known as gay were living their lives. The nation needed to say: our history telling is incomplete. “We already knew that about race; we already knew that about women… but we needed to think this way [about queer history]. It felt both revolutionary and, happily, in the end ordinary to do this.” (Download PDF of that issue.)

• Smithsonian's Veteran Man-in-the-Middle Stands His Ground (Adam Goodheart, In the Capital, NY Times, 4-24-2002)
     "The tensions at the history museum would test any acting director -- though in some ways Marc Pachter seems the perfect man for the challenge. A 28-year veteran at the institution, he was regarded as a pathfinder through the thicket of the cultural wars of the 90's. Now, his admirers say, he is a lone voice of reason drowned out in the continuing din. The question, they say, is how much any museum director, even a visionary, can accomplish amid the current tensions.
    "Mr. Pachter is, in a sense, the Smithsonian's resident philosopher -- a role that he quickly steps into when we finally reach the ruby slippers. On this afternoon, the slippers' display case is surrounded by throngs of school-age visitors. As Mr. Pachter surveys the scene with satisfaction, I ask him the type of question that the museum's detractors have long raised: isn't Judy Garland's footwear a bit trivial to be given a place of honor in a national museum?
     '' 'They're here because they're important to people,'' he answers. ''It's a touchstone to their childhood, a point of contact with the whole story of 'The Wizard of Oz' and how that came to be created. It's a way of getting them to think of history as including their own lives.'
     "Many of the Smithsonian's critics, Mr. Pachter says, talk as if the museum were faced with a stark choice between academia or Disney World. For Mr. Pachter, the best analogy for a museum's cultural role is another, perhaps slightly old-fashioned, comparison: a cathedral. It's a view he has been preaching for years in a number of well-regarded speeches and articles to the international museum world, and, possibly less effectively, to his Smithsonian colleagues. Indeed, a few days after the Reynolds gift was withdrawn, Mr. Pachter was at Oxford University to deliver a prestigious Slade lecture, a speech he titled ''The Museum as a Sacred Place in a Secular Age.'' 

      "For Mr. Pachter, such ecclesiastical comparisons don't suggest aloofness and sterility, but rather the opposite: an experience that combines both theatricality and reason, both rapture and contemplation. In other words, both Disney World and academia. It's a dualism that, he says, goes all the way back to the origins of modern museums in the 18th century."

 

      The tensions at the history museum would test any acting director -- though in some ways Marc Pachter seems the perfect man for the challenge. A 28-year veteran at the institution, he was regarded as a pathfinder through the thicket of the cultural wars of the 90's. Now, his admirers say, he is a lone voice of reason drowned out in the continuing din. The question, they say, is how much any museum director, even a visionary, can accomplish amid the current tensions. Mr. Pachter is, in a sense, the Smithsonian's resident philosopher -- a role that he quickly steps into when we finally reach the ruby slippers. On this afternoon, the slippers' display case is surrounded by throngs of school-age visitors.

 

• Portrait Gallery Director to Retire in '07 (Jacqueline Trescott, Washington Post, 12-11-2006) "As director, Pachter was a key part of the team that redesigned the Portrait Gallery and refocused and expanded its view of history and art. The gallery was closed for a longer-than-expected six years for a top-to-bottom renovation; since reopening in July, it has had record crowds visiting the building it shares with the Smithsonian American Art Museum. About 30 percent of the visitors are coming after 5 p.m.; the decision to extend the museum's hours till 7 p.m. was made to fit "the vibe" of the revitalized Gallery Place neighborhood, Pachter said."

• American Flâneur (Instagram) Photos and reels. (I passed, then kept flunking, Instagram's test, but maybe it will work for you.) Maybe it will come back. Maybe you need to be a member of Instagram. See also Barge rehearsal in Thailand (Reels) Scroll down for more photos of Marc.

    Good luck getting on Instagram. I routinely fail their tests for getting on, clicking on photos of buildings with stairs, etc.. They asked for my cell phone number, and after I sent it, I filled in that number and they said "Try another number. That doesn't work."

• Marc had a few words to say in 2016 about Trump’s election, by way of boosting morale.
       "This is not the first setback in our political history as a nation. It is important to remember that in a democracy there are always different views as to the direction the nation should take. Every major body of opinion gets a shot at Presidential leadership. And it's also important to remember that our system never allows a President complete authority. In fact the system is set up to frustrate authority. When the person you support has been elected you often see the limits of what he (and someday she) can do. Obama had his successes but was often blocked. The same will happen to the President-elect.
       "What we are now obligated to do is monitor the new administration and if we disagree with its policies to make our opinions known and to expect our representatives and the judiciary to reflect on these issues. The American system is not meant to be efficient or to support only one set of views. It is meant to check and balance. This is a loud, messy and very American process."

• Marc Pachter (Wikipedia entry) Marc Pachter (born 1942 or 1943) is an American museum director who headed up the United States National Portrait Gallery from 2000 until 2007 and was the acting director (after coming back out of retirement) of the National Museum of American History between 2011 and 2012, both at the Smithsonian. While at the NPG Pachter played an instrumental role in acquiring the Lansdowne portrait for the...

• Marc Pachter and the Washington Biography Group The Washington Biography Group was inspired by Marc Pachter, then chief historian of the National Portrait Gallery, who organized an all-day symposium on "Biography: Life As Art" at The Smithsonian Institution's Baird Auditorium. Held December 6, 1986, the symposium was attended by 325 people. Three biographers talked about their work: David McCullough, Phyllis Rose, and Marc Pachter. After the event, Marc Pachter, Judy Nelson, and others wondered if members of the audience would like to continue meeting, so Marc announced at the end of the day that those interested in meeting to discuss biography writing should send him a postcard and he would schedule a meeting. In February 1987, about 30 people attended the first meeting, at Chick and Judy Nelson's home. During the pandemic the group has met on Zoom.

     It was through the WBG that I got to know Marc. WBG survived Marc's post-retirement move to New York and his peregrinations through the world, but he always stayed in touch. He will truly be missed.

• Washington Biography Group

• Marc's two books:

     Telling Lives: The Biographer's Art

     A Gallery of Presidents (National Portrait Gallery)

________________

What should it be? Black and white?  Black and White? black and white?

A few well-expressed opinions, handy for classroom and copy desk arguments.

Frequently updated and as of 11-20-24  there is no clear consensus on which of the two words (black, white) to capitalize or why.

But here you can find arguments about what's proper: 

• The Case for Capitalizing the B in Black (Kwame Anthony Appiah, The Atlantic,6-18-2020) 'The style guide of the American Psychological Association declares, as it has for a generation: “Racial and ethnic groups are designated by proper nouns and are capitalized. Therefore, use ‘Black’ and ‘White’ instead of ‘black’ and ‘white.’” That seems sensible enough. But for some people, White is the sticking point. As The American Heritage Dictionary (on whose usage panel, now disbanded, I have served) ventured, in its fourth edition: “In all likelihood, uncertainty as to the mode of styling of white has dissuaded many publications from adopting the capitalized form Black.”

• The decision to capitalize Black(John Daniszewski, The Definitive Source, AP, 7-19-20) AP’s style is now to capitalize Black in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense, conveying an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa. The lowercase black is a color, not a person. We also now capitalize Indigenous in reference to original inhabitants of a place
---Why we will lowercase white (John Daniszewski, The Definitive Source, AP, 7-20-20) "AP style will continue to lowercase the term white in racial, ethnic and cultural senses. This decision follows our move last month to capitalize Black in such uses. We consulted with a wide group of people internally and externally around the globe and considered a variety of commentary in making these decisions."

• Recognizing Race in Language: Why We Capitalize “Black” and “White” (Jessica Pika, Center for the Study of Social Policy, March 2020) Recognizing the importance of language, after research, reflection, and conversations with staff and thought partners, CSSP has decided to standardize the capitalization of the “B” in Black in our writing, when referring to people of African descent. At CSSP we understand that Black refers to not just a color but signifies a history and the racial identity of Black Americans. As writer and professor Lori L. Tharps argues, “Black with a capital B refers to people of the African diaspora. Lowercase black is simply a color.”
    [C]apitalizing “Black” is not universally accepted....what does it mean when we align with grammatical rules determined by predominantly White institutions, instead of predominantly Black institutions, like ESSENCE and Ebony magazines, both of which capitalize the “B” in Black?
    While we condemn those who capitalize “W” for the sake of evoking violence, we intentionally capitalize “White” in part to invite people, and ourselves, to think deeply about the ways Whiteness survives—and is supported both explicitly and implicitly.
• Capitalization Style for Black and White as Race Terms (Right Touch Editing's useful chart of various organizations preferences, as of 10-26-21)

• Why we will lowercase white (AP) "[P]eople who are Black have strong historical and cultural commonalities, even if they are from different parts of the world....White people generally do not share the same history and culture, or the experience of being discriminated against because of skin color."

• Uppercasing ‘Black’ (New York Times, 6-30-30) 'The Associated Press and other major news organizations have recently adopted “Black,” which has long been favored by many African-American publications and other outlets. The new style is also consistent with our treatment of many other racial and ethnic terms: We recently decided to capitalize “Native” and “Indigenous,” while other ethnic terms like “Asian-American” and “Latino” have always been capitalized.
      We will retain lowercase treatment for “white.” While there is an obvious question of parallelism, there has been no comparable movement toward widespread adoption of a new style for “white,” and there is less of a sense that “white” describes a shared culture and history. Moreover, hate groups and white supremacists have long favored the uppercase style, which in itself is reason to avoid it.'

    The term “brown” as a racial or ethnic description should also generally remain lowercase and should be used with care.

• Capitalizing for Equality (Conscious Style Guide) The New York Times, Poynter, and Columbia Journalism Review "have argued for capitalizing black and white when used as racial terms, for the sake of respect, equality, and typographical integrity. Other groups are entitled to the visibility conferred by a capital letter—Hispanic, Native, Asian American—and despite the lack of consensus that any of these are one people, these overly broad and arbitrary labels endure."
       However, "If your editorial directive is to call people what they want to be called—including names, pronouns, and labels—then look to Black media outlets like Ebony and Essence for accepted usage and avoid overriding their terminology. By capitalizing black and white, we also make necessary distinctions between color and race—black hair and Black hair—similar to distinguishing between native and Native. Don’t wait for your style guide to catch up, because it’s waiting for you to demonstrate sufficient usage."

• Why we capitalize ‘Black’ (and not ‘white’) (Mike Laws, Columbia Journalism Review, 6-16-20) "For many people, Black reflects a shared sense of identity and community. White carries a different set of meanings; capitalizing the word in this context risks following the lead of white supremacists." "...as my CJR colleague Alexandria Neason told me recently, “I view the term Black as both an ethnic identity in the States that doesn’t rely on hyphenated Americanness (and is more accurate than African American, which suggests recent ties to the continent) and is also transnational and inclusive of our Caribbean [and] Central/South American siblings.” To capitalize Black, in her view, is to acknowledge that slavery “deliberately stripped” people forcibly shipped overseas “of all other ethnic/national ties.” She added, “African American is not wrong, and some prefer it, but if we are going to capitalize Asian and South Asian and Indigenous, for example, groups that include myriad ethnic identities united by shared race and geography and, to some degree, culture, then we also have to capitalize Black.”

• The Case for Capitalizing the B in Black (Kwame Anthony Appiah, The Atlantic, 6-18-2020) Black and white are both historically created racial identities—and whatever rule applies to one should apply to the other.

• Why ‘White’ should be capitalized, too (Nell Irvin Painter, Washington Post, 7-22-20)

 

•  After a long discussion on the Copyeditors' listserv, participants tended to agree that at the moment the best thing is to follow the style guide of your publisher or publication, because there are reasons, many of them good, to capitalize both Black and White, to capitalize only Black, and to capitalize neither. (H/T Jeannette de Beauvoir)

 

• James McBride, in The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, uses lowercase for both black and white.

• The Washington Post announces writing style changes for racial and ethnic identifiers (7-29-20) 

      "The Post to capitalize Black to identify groups that make up the African diaspora."

      "[P]olitical terms used to promote racist ideologies or to advocate ethnic superiority or separation should remain lowercase (i.e. white supremacist, black nationalist). And in crime stories, where cultural and historical identity aren’t key to a suspect’s actions, use the lowercase versions of black, white and brown as race descriptors."

• Ask a Radical Copyeditor: Black with a Capital “B” (Alex Kapitan, “Black” vs. “black,” Radical Copyeditor, 9-21-16) In his book Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness?: What It Means to Be Black Now, author Touré explains: 'I have chosen to capitalize the word “Black” and lowercase “white” throughout this book. I believe “Black” constitutes a group, an ethnicity equivalent to African-American, Negro, or, in terms of a sense of ethnic cohesion, Irish, Polish, or Chinese. I don’t believe that whiteness merits the same treatment. Most American whites think of themselves as Italian-American or Jewish or otherwise relating to other past connections that Blacks cannot make because of the familial and national disruptions of slavery. So to me, because Black speaks to an unknown familial/national past it deserves capitalization.'
      'I choose to use Black and white in my own writing out of a dedication to centering the leadership, authority, and truths of the people I’m writing about—particularly when those people are marginalized. Although all people of African descent by no means agree with each other on everything, in the United States the Black press and many Black authors use Black and white.' [It is worth reading this full entry.]

• A Debate Over Identity and Race Asks, Are African-Americans ‘Black’ or ‘black’? (John Eligon, NY Times, 6-26-2020) The push to capitalize black to refer to African-Americans is far more than a typographical change.

• Recognizing Race in Language: Why We Capitalize “Black” and “White” (Ann Thúy Nguyễn and Maya Pendleton, Center for the Study of Social Policy, 3-23-20)

• Why We're Capitalizing Black (NY Times, 7-5-2020) The Times has changed its style on the term’s usage to better reflect a shared cultural identity. Here’s what led to that decision. Here's Tony Mancini's good argument against it.

• Why hundreds of American newsrooms have started capitalizing the ‘b’ in ‘Black’ (Elahe Izadi, Washington Post, 6-18-2020) A good overview of why it's changing.

Expect to hear continuing controversy about the 2023 Hugo Awards, awarded at the Worldcon convention held in Chengdu, China. Several authors who should have qualified for the science fiction awards were disqualified without any explanation, including R.F. Kuang, author of Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence, Xiran Jay Zhao, author of Iron Widow, and Paul Weimer, who would have been eligible for Best Fan Writer as well as an episode of Netflix's The Sandman series.

 

• Worldcon in the news Charlie Stross, Charlie's Diary, 1-26-24) "The important thing to note is that the 'worldcon' is *not a permanent organization. It's more like a virus that latches onto an SF convention, infects it with worldcon-itis, runs the Hugo awards and the WSFS business meeting, then selects a new convention to parasitize the year after next.
     Charlie's takeaway: "The world science fiction convention coevolved with fan-run volunteer conventions in societies where there's a general expectation of the rule of law and most people abide by social norms irrespective of enforcement. The WSFS constitution isn't enforceable except insofar as normally fans see no reason not to abide by the rules. So it works okay in the USA, the UK, Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and all the other western-style democracies it's been held in ... but broke badly when a group of enthusiasts living in an authoritarian state won the bid then realized too late that by doing so they'd come to the attention of Very Important People who didn't care about their society's rulebook.
      Immediate consequences:
    "For the first fifty or so worldcons, worldcon was exclusively a North American phenomenon except for occasional sorties to the UK. Then it began to open up as cheap air travel became a thing. In the 21st century about 50% of worldcons are held outside North America, and until 2016 there was an expectation that it would become truly international. But the Chengdu fubar has created shockwaves. There's no immediate way to fix this..."
    Check out the 200+ comments.

• Resignations, Censures Follow in Wake of Hugo Awards Controversy (Sophia Stewart, Publishers Weekly, 2-1-24) "Two leaders of Worldcon Intellectual Property (WIP), the nonprofit that holds the service marks of the World Science Fiction Society, have reportedly stepped down from their posts following accusations of censorship in the voting process for the 2023 Hugo Awards.

     "The Hugo Awards are the most prestigious honors in the sci-fi/fantasy community. The awards, administered by the World Science Fiction Society, are awarded annually at the group's global convention, Worldcon. Last year's Worldcon was held for the first time in China, in Chengdu. "The resignations and disciplinary actions come after the nomination data for the 2023 awards was made public on January 20 and it was revealed that certain authors and books—including R.F. Kuang's hit novel Babel—had been inexplicably deemed "not eligible" for the Hugo. Kuang is Chinese American, and her work draws heavily from Chinese culture and history. Many fans and authors have speculated that state censorship—or self-censorship under the state's watch—was the reason for the opaque ineligibility rulings by the Chengdu–based committee."

 

• Inside the Censorship Scandal That Rocked Sci-Fi and Fantasy's Biggest Awards (Adam Morgan, Esquire Magazine, 2-2-24) Insiders tell Esquire what really happened when the Hugo Awards melted down over unexplained disqualifications—and what it could mean for the future of literary awards.

• Genre Grapevine on the Hugo Awards’ “not eligible” problem (Jason Sanford, Genre Grapevine, January 2024) Once again, the Hugo Awards are making international news. And once again, not in a good way. The "Hugo Award stats revealed that a number of writers and works were kept off the award’s final ballot for no valid reason. One of the biggest shockers was that Rebecca F. Kuang’s acclaimed fantasy novel Babel, which won the Nebula Award for Best Novel, was left off the final ballot despite earning 810 nomination votes, enough to place it third on the list of nominated novels."

     See also Worldcon Intellectual Property Announces Censure of McCarty, Chen Shi and Yalow; McCarty Resigns (Mike Glyer's News of SF Fandom, 1-30-24) and Hugo Award nominations raise questions Jane Friedman on The Hot Sheet, 1-31-24) Others also listed as ineligible for Hugo Awards: Xiran Jay Zhao, Neil Gaiman, and Paul Weimer.

The Hugo Awards controversy goes back a few years:

 

• Attack the Bloc: The Hugo Awards Controversy (Emmaline Soken-Huberty, Gildshire, 8-28-19)

 

• Sci-fi’s right-wing backlash: Never doubt that a small group of deranged trolls can ruin anything (even the Hugo Awards) (Arthur Chu, Salon, 4-6-15) Lazy democracy is like an open comments section -- left unmoderated and unguided, the worst people take over.

 

• The Sad Puppy Takeover (Brooke Gladstone interviews Arthur Chu, On the Media radio, 4-17-15) The Hugo Awards are science fiction writing's highest honor, and this year conservative fans, concerned with the liberal leanings of recent awards, banded together to nominate their sci-fi ideals. Brooke speaks with actor and writer Arthur Chu about how the awards controversy reflects a larger history of cultural backlash.

 
• The Hugo Awards Were Always Political. But Now They're Only Political. (Charlie Jane Anders, Gizmodo, 4-4-15) Last August, the Hugo Awards for science fiction and fantasy were swept by a younger group of women and people of color. At the time, we said "This was really a year that underscored that a younger generation of diverse writers are becoming central to the genre." So maybe it's not surprising that there was an organized backlash....When the nominees are mostly white men, as they have been during most eras except for the mid-1990s and the past five years, it does send a message about whose work is going to be considered valuable.

 

• Freeping the Hugo Awards (Susan Grigsby, Daily Kos, 4-12-15) "The Nebulas are awarded by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). The Hugos are nominated and awarded by fans of the genre who are members of Worldcon, making them basically a popularity contest." This piece is about how a group of conservative people ("Sad Puppies"--and not necessarily sci fi readers) gamed the system, stacking the ballot for Hugos with some unlikely candidates with acceptable attitudes toward white males (and fewer heroes who are woman or people of color).

New in 2024:

(updated 11-20-24)

The BOI E-Filing System supports the electronic filing of the Beneficial Ownership Information Report (BOIR) under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA)--"beneficial ownership information" meaning information about the individuals who directly or indirectly own or control a company. The CTA requires certain types of U.S. and foreign entities to report beneficial ownership information to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

   [Emphasis here and below added for clarity about what this is all about. Let me know if someone presents crystal clear and concise information anywhere about who has to do what. In particular, do freelance writers and writing firms need to comply? Meanwhile, read this only when brain working at full capacity.]

• New Federal Reporting Requirement for Who Does Not Have to Report? Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) ( U.S. Department of the Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, www.fincen.gov/boi FinCEN’s Small Entity Compliance Guide includes checklists for each of the 23 exemptions that may help determine whether your company qualifies for an exemption. Please review Chapter 1.2 of the Guide for more information.

 
• Oh BOI, oh BOI! New Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements for Small (and Large) Businesses/ (American Translators Association) "A company that was created in the United States by filing a document with a secretary of state or a similar state or tribal office or similar office in a US territory is required to report BOI. Similarly, a foreign company that was registered with such a state or tribal or US territory office to do business in the United States has to file BOI as well.

    'You do NOT have to file if you are a sole proprietor, even if you have a fictitious business name (FBN, also known as doing business as, DBA) and/or obtained an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS and/or have a professional or occupational license." A good source of info for freelance writers and editors.

    "What is a FinCEN identifier and do I need one?
    "At the very beginning of the reporting form, you will be asked whether you want a FinCEN identifier. A FinCEN identifier is another unique identifying number (similar to a TIN) which can be requested with the initial BOI filing and used for future BOI reporting. However, according to the FinCEN FAQ, it seems that while companies can be declared inactive with one last BOI report, there is currently no way to deactivate such a FinCEN identifier number, at least not at the time of writing. Since all changes, including changes in address, will have to be reported within 30 days for active companies and active FinCEN identifiers, and since FinCEN identifiers currently cannot be deactivated, it seems unwise to request such an identifier or else you will have to keep filing reports long after retirement."

• Small Entities Must File New Beneficial Ownership Information Reports in 2024 (Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation, Iowa State University, 11-30-23) The CTA was enacted as part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, Public Law 116–283. The CTA was enacted to prevent money laundering, corrupt financial transactions, and financial terrorism. It requires the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN, a bureau of the U.S. Treasury) to establish and maintain a national registry of beneficial owners of entities that are otherwise not subject to disclosure regulations. Specifically, FinCEN has stated that collection of BOI will “help to shed light on criminals who evade taxes, hide their illicit wealth, and defraud employees and customers and hurt honest U.S. businesses through their misuse of shell companies.” In furtherance of these goals, the CTA authorizes FinCEN to share the collected information with government agencies, financial institutions, and financial regulations, subject to safeguards and protocols. Answers clearly these questions: Who must file a report? Exceptions to Reporting

 

• Do you have an LLC? There’s a new federal filing requirement known as BOI. (Jane Friedman, Electric Speed blog, 2-3-24)

       "In January 2021, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) was enacted by Congress, which requires business entities to file a beneficial ownership information (BOI) report with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network within the US Department of the Treasury. The CTA went into effect on Jan. 1, 2024. If you have an LLC, you have one year to file your BOI. There is no fee to file, but you may be fined if you don’t file on time."

• New Year, New Rules: 2024 Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirement (Wolters Kluwer) What (small) business owners, lawyers, accountants must do under the Corporate Transparency Act. Find out how to comply.

• FinCEN issues final rule on access to the beneficial ownership information reported under the Corporate Transparency Act (Sandra Feldman, Wolters Kluwer, 12-22-23) "On December 22, 2023, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule (the Access Rule) that sets forth the circumstances under which beneficial ownership information (BOI) may be disclosed to authorized BOI recipients.
" The CTA allows FinCEN to disclose BOI only to six categories of requestors. The Access Rule, among other things, clarifies the purposes for which these requestors may use BOI, the steps they must take in making their request, and the steps they must take to ensure the security and confidentiality of the information. The very long final access file can be accessed here:

     https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2023-12-22/pdf/2023-27973.pdf

 

• File the Beneficial Ownership Information Report (BOIR)

• Welcome to the BOI E-Filing System

     The BOI E-Filing System supports the electronic filing of the Beneficial Ownership Information Report (BOIR) under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). The CTA requires certain types of U.S. and foreign entities to report beneficial ownership information to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

       A “beneficial owner” under the BOI Rule is defined as any individual who, directly or indirectly, either exercises substantial control over a reporting company or owns or controls at least 25% of the ownership interests of a reporting company.

• Starting a Small Business (Pat McNees's article for USIA, many years ago)

 
• Forming an Entity: When Should Authors Create an LLC or S Corp? (Video of webinar, Author Guild, 8-19-22) AddressThis webinar will addresses such questions as:
At what income threshold is it worth it to form an entity?
How much more complicated will my taxes be?
Does incorporating protect me personally in the event of a lawsuit?
When is an LLC or S corp better for an author?

 

• Fact Sheet for Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Rule (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, 9-29-22) Under the rule, a beneficial owner includes any individual who, directly or indirectly, either (1) exercises substantial control over a reporting company, or (2) owns or controls at least 25 percent of the ownership interests of a reporting company. The rule defines the terms “substantial control” and “ownership interest.”

• Small Entity Compliance Guide (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Version 1.1 December 2023) Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirements (BOIR requirements). FinCEN's
• Select the filing method that works best for you: File PDF BOIR

• Updates on U.S. Corporate Transparency Act Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements (Sidley, Anti-Money Laundering Update, 12-14-23) "This unprecedented collection of information by the government is intended to curtail the deliberate misuse of legal entities and deter illicit financial activity and national security threats that result therefrom."

      'The BOI Rule includes 23 categories of exemptions from the definition of “reporting company” from the CTA for entities already generally subject to substantial United States federal or state regulation under which beneficial ownership may be known. These exemptions include, among others, banks, insurance companies, public companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), broker-dealers, certain investment funds, investment advisers and pooled investment vehicles, certain tax-exempt entities, subsidiaries of certain exempt entities, and a category of “large operating companies.” '

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• The Women In Publishing Summit

    Virtual, March 6-9, 2024

• BookMARCon 2024

    Virtual, April 5-7, 2024

• Pikes Peak Writers Conference

    Colorado Springs, Colorado, April 25-28, 2024

• Inkers Con 2024

    Dallas, TX June 7-9, 2024

     Attended by several hundred people, perhaps 75% new authors. If you can't attend the live conference, pay for online access (good for 6 years or so) at Inkers Con Digital Conference (July 20 to August 2, 2024). Bestselling author Pamela Kelley says "InkersCon is fantastic. A smaller conference, about the same size as NINC around 400-450 or so people and a good range of workshops. It's held in Dallas I think. I do the virtual every year and it's about $200 and well worth it--as we have access for six years. Some really great sessions."

• The Self Publishing Show LIVE!

    Live, London’s South Bank, June 25-26, 2024

• Killer Nashville

    International Writers Conference, Nashville, Tennessee, August 22-25, 2024

    For writers in all genres incorporating mystery, thriller, action, or suspense elements

• NINC 

    Novelists, Inc., TradeWinds Island Grand Beach Resort, St. Pete Beach, Florida, September 18-22, 2024

      Writes bestselling novelist Pamela Kelley: "NINC is for more experienced authors, both trad and indie, and meets yearly in St. Pete, Florida. I don't go for the workshops, I go for the networking with vendors and to see my author friends. NINC is the one I never miss and the only one I attended in-person last year."
• Moonlight & Magnolias

    Romance Writers conference, Atlanta, Georgia, October 3-5, 2024

• Self-Pub Con

    The Self-Publishing Advice Conference, a free online author conference run in association with the Alliance of Independent Authors (three days, October 21-24, 2024)

• Author Nation

    Las Vegas, NV, November 11-15, 2024

     Taking over from the 20Books conference, last held in 2023.  On YouTube: 20Booksto50k[R]-Live Events, check out 20Books sessions from past years, free). Author Nation has the same location and general timing as 20Books, but is different. Listen to past events here.

       Writes popular novelist Pamela Kelley in 2024: "I went to Author Nation a few years ago when it was 20books. It only changed hands this year because the organizer retired from doing it--it's a huge project--close to 2000 attendees in Vegas. It's a great conference, very inexpensive and there are sessions for all levels. It's probably about 75% newer authors so new people shouldn't feel intimidated--they will be in good company as it's a friendly, inclusive conference. And all the sessions from past years are up for free on Youtube. I don't know if that will continue now that it's Author Nation, there may be a fee attached to the videos going forward, possibly."

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ROUNDUP ARTICLES
• Eight Indie Author Conferences to Attend In 2024

     (Clayton Noblit, Written Word Media, 1-24-24)
• 5 Amazing Conferences For Indie Authors To Attend in 2024 (Mackenzie Harrison, BookBrush)
• A Guide to the Best Author Conferences (Self-Publishing.com, 5-3-23) Not necessarily indie author events.

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