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March has brought a lot of things this year: basketball, 80 degree temperatures, a green river (if you live in Chicago, that is), and lots of awards for youth literature! The Ezra Jack Keats Award winners—chosen for their ability to impart “the universal qualities of childhood, a strong and supportive family and the multicultural nature [...]

After getting a ton of ink in 2008 (much of it electric ink right here at Likely Stories), Sherry Jones’ controversial Jewel of Medina hasn’t made much news this year. Now, however, in a story with a tabloid-worthy headline (“Muhammad child bride novel author condemns UK ‘censorship’,” by Alison Flood) The Guardian reports that Jones “has [...]

Well, I’m back. I had a great time at the Montana Festival of the Book. There were many memorable moments, but I’ll restrict myself–due to fatigue and an imminent conference call–to two. First, during the “When Commerce and Controversy Collide” panel, devoted to discussion of Sherry Jones’ The Jewel of Medina, the panelist seated immediately [...]

Your Friday grab-bag:  Bernard Henri Levy and Michel Houellebecq are tired of being pushed around, darn it. And, like the public men of letters they are, they’re . . . taking it public. The headline to Angelique Chrisafis’ Guardian story says it all: “The cultural whipping boys’ manifesto: France has vomited on us for too [...]

Sadly, the talk of violence in the Jewel of Medina controversy was not just theoretical. The New York Times reported yesterday that Martin Rynja of Gibson Square, the book’s UK publisher, was the victim of something more than inflammatory speech. Thankfully, no one was hurt (“Attack May Be Tied To Book About Muhammad,” by Sarah Lyall): Early [...]

According to Publishers Weekly, Sherry Jones’ Jewel of Medina will be published in the U.S. by Beaufort Books (“Beaufort to Publish ‘Jewel of Medina’,” by Jim Milliot). You may remember Beaufort as the house that picked up O. J. Simpson’s If I Did It. So clearly, it’s a matter of principle with them.

For authors and would-be authors, a valuable reminder that, when basing your characters on real-life people, you should change more than just the names. Like their gender, for instance. Or your mean-spirited worldview. (“Director: Library Diaries Author Invaded Patrons’ Privacy,” American Libraries) Sherry Jones’ The Jewel of Medina will be published after all, in Britain [...]

Sir Salman “Scruffy” Rushdie (sorry, I just can’t help myself, it’s too cute), whose name is frequently evoked in the Jewel of Medina affair (note to the Ian Fleming estate: great title for a Bond film), has weighed in (“Rushdie condemns cancellation of Muhammad novel,” by Hillel Italie, AP) “I am very disappointed to hear [...]

Defending her role in the unpublishing of Sherry Jones’ The Jewel of Medina, Denise Spellberg writes “I do not espouse censorship” in The Wall Street Journal (“I Didn’t Kill ‘The Jewel of Medina’“). Nevertheless: . . . I felt it my duty to warn the press of the novel’s potential to provoke anger among some [...]

Citing fear for the safety of its author and its employees, Random House has canceled publication of Sherry Jones’s The Jewel of Medina, a historical novel about Aisha, a young wife of the prophet Muhammad. A glance at this news undoubtedly causes many of us to ask: have the terrorists won? But this is a more nuanced [...]