Are we told what we should read? – NBC

Literary journals, end-of-year best books lists, book prizes, Goodreads and BookTube are all competing for readers’ trust and attention. In their own way they each play a part in sustaining gatekeeping communities, building hype, recognising literary merit, popular appeal and the titles worth skipping. To what extent are they influencing readers’, writers’ and publishers’ choices? How necessary are they in the making of a thriving publishing and literary scenes?

Writer and journalist Teodor Reljić will be moderating a discussion on the roles and influence of various forms of criticism locally and internationally, between Jen Calleja, translator from German of Marion Poschmann’s The Pine Islands (Profile Books, 2019), Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2019, Prof. Ivan Callus, lecturer of literary criticism and theory at the University of Malta Department of English, and Robert Pisani from the review blog The Bobsphere.
This is a live event.