Author Event! Stefan Fatsis’s “Unabridged”
Evento con el autor Stefan Fatsis: Unabridged
Stefan Fatsis comes to Providence to discuss his latest, “Abridged”!
Join us on February 25th at 6pm as we host Stefan Fatsis, who will be reading from and discussing his latest book, Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary. Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase!
About the book:
Words are the currency of culture—and never more than today. From selfie to doomscrolling to rizz, our hyper-connected digital world coins and spreads new words with lightning speed and locks them into mainstream consciousness with unprecedented influence. Journalist and bestselling author Stefan Fatsis embedded as a lexicographer-in-training at America’s most famous dictionary publisher, Merriam-Webster, to learn how words get into the dictionary, where they come from, who decides what they mean, and how we write and think about them. As he recounts in Unabridged, he discovered the history and fascinating subculture of the dictionary and of those who curate and revere “one of the most basic features of our collective humanity.”
Fatsis reveals the little-known story of how the brothers George and Charles Merriam acquired Noah Webster’s original American dictionary and reshaped the business of language forever. Merriam-Webster became America’s most successful and enduring compendium of words, withstanding intense competition and cultural controversies—only to be threatened by the power of Google and artificial intelligence today.
Delving into Merriam’s legendary archives and parsing its arcane rules, Fatsis learns the painstaking precision required for writing good definitions. He examines how the dictionary has handled the most explosive slurs and the revolutionary change in pronouns. He votes on the annual Word of the Year, travels to the legendary Oxford English Dictionary, and visits the world’s greatest private dictionary collection in a Greenwich Village apartment stuffed with more than 20,000 books. Fatsis demonstrates how words are weaponized in our polarized political culture—from liberal to woke to DEI—and, in a time of insurrections and pandemics, how they can be a literal matter of life and death. Along the way, he manages to write a few definitions that crack the code and are enshrined in the pixelated dictionary.
“I fell in love with the dictionary on my eleventh birthday,” Fatsis writes about the full-color college lexicon he received on that day. “The dictionary projects permanence, but the language is Jell-O, slippery and mutable and forever collapsing on itself.” Unabridged takes readers to the heart of an industry in flux, celebrating as it does the sheer thrill and wonder of words.
About the author:
Stefan Fatsis is the author of the New York Times bestseller Word Freak, about the world of competitive Scrabble; A Few Seconds of Panic, about life in the National Football League; and Wild and Outside, about minor league baseball. His latest book, Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary will be published in October by Grove Atlantic. In four decades as a journalist, Fatsis has written and talked for Slate, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and many other outlets. He lives in Washington, D.C.
About the moderator:
Elisa Gabbert is the author of seven collections of poetry, essays, and criticism, most recently Any Person Is the Only Self (FSG, 2024), which was a finalist for the PEN/Diamondstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, a New York Times Editor’s Choice, and one of the Washington Post’s 50 notable works of nonfiction for 2024. Her other books include The Unreality of Memory & Other Essays, Normal Distance, The Word Pretty, and The Self Unstable. She writes the On Poetry column for the New York Times, and her work has appeared widely in publications including Harper’s, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, The New York Review of Books, The Believer, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Providence.
Stefan Fatsis viene a Providence para hablar de su último libro, “Abridged”!
Acompáñanos el 25 de febrero a las 6 pm mientras recibimos a Stefan Fatsis, quien leerá y discutirá su último libro, Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary. ¡Habrá copias firmadas del libro disponibles para la compra!
Acerca del libro:
Las palabras son la moneda de la cultura—y nunca más que hoy. Desde selfie hasta doomscrolling y rizz, nuestro mundo digital hiperconectado acuña y difunde nuevas palabras a la velocidad del rayo y las fija en la conciencia general con una influencia sin precedentes. El periodista y autor bestseller Stefan Fatsis se integró como lexicógrafo en formación en la editorial de diccionarios más famosa de Estados Unidos, Merriam-Webster, para aprender cómo las palabras entran en el diccionario, de dónde vienen, quién decide qué significan y cómo las escribimos y pensamos sobre ellas. Como relata en Unabridged, descubrió la historia y la fascinante subcultura del diccionario y de quienes lo curan y veneran “una de las características más básicas de nuestra humanidad colectiva.”
Fatsis revela la historia poco conocida de cómo los hermanos George y Charles Merriam adquirieron el diccionario americano original de Noah Webster y transformaron para siempre el negocio del lenguaje. Merriam-Webster se convirtió en el compendio de palabras más exitoso y duradero de Estados Unidos, resistiendo una intensa competencia y controversias culturales—solo para ser amenazado hoy por el poder de Google y la inteligencia artificial.
Adentrándose en los legendarios archivos de Merriam y analizando sus reglas arcanas, Fatsis aprende la precisión meticulosa requerida para escribir buenas definiciones. Examina cómo el diccionario ha manejado los insultos más explosivos y el cambio revolucionario en los pronombres. Vota por la Palabra del Año anual, viaja al legendario Oxford English Dictionary y visita la mayor colección privada de diccionarios en un apartamento de Greenwich Village repleto con más de 20,000 libros. Fatsis demuestra cómo las palabras se usan como armas en nuestra cultura política polarizada—desde liberal hasta woke y DEI—y, en tiempos de insurrecciones y pandemias, cómo pueden ser literalmente cuestión de vida o muerte. En el camino, logra escribir algunas definiciones que descifran el código y quedan consagradas en el diccionario pixelado.
“Me enamoré del diccionario en mi undécimo cumpleaños,” escribe Fatsis sobre el léxico universitario a todo color que recibió ese día. “El diccionario proyecta permanencia, pero el lenguaje es gelatina, resbaladizo y mutable y siempre colapsando sobre sí mismo.” Unabridged lleva a los lectores al corazón de una industria en cambio, celebrando la pura emoción y maravilla de las palabras.
Acerca del autor:
Stefan Fatsis es autor del bestseller del New York Times Word Freak, sobre el mundo del Scrabble competitivo; A Few Seconds of Panic, sobre la vida en la Liga Nacional de Fútbol Americano; y Wild and Outside, sobre el béisbol de ligas menores. Su último libro, Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary, será publicado en octubre por Grove Atlantic. En cuatro décadas como periodista, Fatsis ha escrito y hablado para Slate, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, The New York Times, Sports Illustrated y muchos otros medios. Vive en Washington, D.C.
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