Nature of Language/Anisfield-Wolf Awards

Letters from Nature and the Nature of Language
A “study has concluded that the letters we (humans) use can be viewed as a mirror of the features of the natural world…[They] are not dictated by the ease of writing them, economy of pen strokes, and so on, but their underlying familiarity,” writes Roger Highfield in his London Telegraph article called “Alphabets Are as Simple as…”

Humans speak approximately 6500 languages, and more than half will vanish by the end of this century. The decline of these languages is blamed on the rise of English, Hindi, Spanish, and Chinese as being the primary languages in North American, South America, and Asia. In a bow to the languages of the world, the PEN American Center is running 58 events related to “Writers on Their Langauges.” It begins this Tuesday and ends April 30. During this span more than 100 writers from more than 40 countries will participate. Read more.

Anisfield-Wolf Awards
The Cleveland Foundation announced winners of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, created in 1935 to recognize outstanding works that contribute to society's understanding of racism or appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures: Zadie Smith for Beauty, Jill Lepore for New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspirach in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan, and novelist William Demby for lifetime achievements.