This week, we take a look at the recent controversy surrounding the Midwest Writers Workshop, and make some suggestions as to how the national and regional writing communities might be able to avoid such things in the future. We tie it a larger misguided impulse by some in the writing/publishing world to make their spaces “apolitical,” an impossible task that often carries an underlying motive itself. To wrap up, a check-in on how last year’s changes to the NYT bestseller list have affected the list and broader book coverage.