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Literature prize winner condemned over support for Milošević regime

Kosovo has declared the Nobel literature laureate Peter Handke persona non grata in the country, as the row over the Austrian writer’s award continues to provoke anger and controversy.

Handke was awarded the prize at a ceremony in Stockholm on Tuesday. But the Swedish Academy, which selects the winner, has faced a barrage of criticism for choosing the 77-year-old author.

Related: Peter Handke's Nobel prize that dishonours the victims of genocide | Ed Vuilliamy

The literature laureateship, presented to Handke and 2018 laureate Olga Tokarczuk on Tuesday afternoon, faces boycotts and widespread protest

As Turkey joins Albania and Kosovo in boycotting Tuesday’s Nobel prize ceremony for Peter Handke over his support for Slobodan Milosevic’s genocidal regime, war correspondents from Christiane Amanpour to Jeremy Bowen are protesting his win by sharing their harrowing stories from the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

The Austrian writer, whose stance on the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and attendance at Milosevic’s funeral have been widely criticised, is due to receive his Nobel medal in Stockholm, where a large protest demonstration is expected.

Merriam-Webster dictionary says look-ups for its winner have boomed since it became a favoured pronoun for non-binary individuals

They, a common pronoun that can be traced back to the 13th century, has been named word of the year by Merriam-Webster dictionary because of its growing usage for non-binary individuals.

The US dictionary, which has been in print for more than 150 years, said that look-ups for “they” increased by 313% in 2019 compared with the previous year, as the public investigated the word’s shifting use and its increasing prominence in the news.

President’s diktat was ignored by his top officials, Peter Bergen writes in Trump and his Generals: The Cost of Chaos

Donald Trump called for the population of Seoul to be moved during an Oval Office meeting when tensions between the US and North Korea were at their height, according to a new book about the president’s relations with the US military.

In Trump and his Generals: The Cost of Chaos, the national security and counter-terrorism expert Peter Bergen also gives new details of Trump’s demands that the families of US service members in South Korea be evacuated, which the North Korean regime would have interpreted as a clear move towards war. In both cases, Trump’s impetuous diktats were ignored by his top officials.

Related: North Korea insults Trump as 'heedless and erratic old man' as tension rises

Lesley McDowell was one of five judges for the Saltire Scottish fiction book of the year, but claims gender bias slanted decision against Lucy Ellmann

A judge of one of Scotland’s most prestigious literary awards has resigned over its choice of winner, claiming that her fellow judges had not read all of the books, and selected a book by a male author about a woman over three books by women about women.

The Saltire Society literary awards gave out a host of prizes at the National Museum of Scotland last weekend. The Scottish fiction book of the year went to Ewan Morrison for his novel Nina X, described by judges as a “great feat of imagination, showing digital modernity through the eyes of a young woman emerging from a lifetime within the confines of a Maoist commune”.

Related: Lucy Ellmann: ‘We need to raise the level of discourse’

Blaze complying with ministry directive meant for schools harks back to Qin dynasty and Nazi Germany, critics say

A county library in north-western China has been criticised for burning books in line with a nationwide cull of “illegal” or “improper” materials used in school libraries.

Reports and photos of two women burning a pile of books outside the Zhenyuan county library in Gansu province emerged at the weekend. According to Chinese media, an article on the county’s website detailed a “removal and destruction” cleanup at the end of October, focusing on illegal, religious, and biased books.

这张照片最值得注意的地方是什么吗？是图书馆的这些文科馆员主动选择焚书这个动作执行了上级关于清理命令，认真专注演绎着是人就能联想的成语，并且作为成绩放在官网上。 pic.twitter.com/1IP44mcBG7

Related: Creeping censorship in Hong Kong: how China controls sale of sensitive books

Snowman and Snowdog producers have made Christmas treat from Judith Kerr’s children’s classic

“Talk the tiger,” Judith Kerr’s two-year-old daughter Tacy used to instruct her at bedtime. She was demanding more of the story her mother, who had trained as an artist but was then working as a television screenwriter, had started inventing for her after a visit to the zoo.

Talk the tiger Kerr did, and then over the course of a year she started writing it down and illustrating it. A friend recommended that she use bright indelible inks rather than her usual watercolours. The tiger sprang vividly to life and rapidly into homes up and down the land when his encounter with a little girl called Sophie was published as The Tiger Who Came to Tea in 1968. It was an immediate success and has remained in print ever since. Kerr, of course, became a prolific, highly respected and hugely loved children’s author over the subsequent half century, notably for the domestic adventures of another – albeit slightly smaller – cat, Mog, who was rightly felt to merit her own obituary in this paper when she alas ate her very last egg for breakfast. Kerr died in May at the age of 95.

New literature laureate tells journalists ahead of prizegiving that it is the wrong moment to question his support for Slobodan Milošević

Nobel literature laureate Peter Handke brushed off questions about his support for the genocidal regime of Slobodan Milošević at a press conference on Friday, telling gathered journalists that it was not the moment to answer “ignorant” queries.

The Austrian author’s Nobel prize win in October has been widely criticised by writers and politicians over his stance on the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. A petition signed by almost 60,000 people is calling on the Nobel committee to revoke the award from the “apologist for the ‘butcher of Balkans’ Slobodan Milošević”. Handke spoke at Milošević’s funeral in 2006, calling him “a rather tragic man”.

Related: 'A troubling choice': authors criticise Peter Handke's controversial Nobel win

Svenska Akademiens presskonferens med Peter Handke slutade med en hätsk attack mot de närvarande journalisterna.https://t.co/q1O2ETYtML pic.twitter.com/wL7omEyev7

Peter Englund, former permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy and current member, refuses to celebrate the controversial 2019 literature laureate

Days before the Nobel laureate Peter Handke receives his award, a longstanding member of the Swedish Academy has announced that he will be boycotting the ceremonies because celebrating the Austrian writer’s win would be hypocritical.

Peter Englund, the former permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter on Friday that he would not participate this year because “to celebrate Peter Handke’s Nobel prize would be gross hypocrisy on my part”. Handke was set to give a press conference about his win at noon on Friday, with his laureate’s lecture due on Saturday. Formal presentation of his medal is timetabled for Tuesday.