Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—from publishing reports to academic announcements to literary dispatches—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today’s stories:
Apple recently purchased BookLamp, a Boise, Idaho–based start-up known as the “Pandora for Books” for its development of the Book Genome Project—a method of recommending books based on analysis and grouping of titles based on themes and content. The acquisition was made for between $10 million and $15 million. (TechCrunch)
Simon & Schuster has formed a partnership with new Phaidon imprint Regan Arts, which is scheduled to launch its first books this fall. Under the agreement, Simon & Schuster will oversee the worldwide sales and distribution for all Regan Arts print and electronic titles. (GalleyCat)
Three early stories by J. D. Salinger—“The Young Folks,” “Go See Eddie,” and “Once a Week Won’t Kill You”—have been made available to the public for the first time in seventy years by the Devault-Graves Agency, a Memphis-based publisher. The new collection, J.D. Salinger: Three Early Stories, will also feature new illustrations. (Washington Post)
Yaddo, the writers and artists residency located in Saratoga Springs, New York, has been designated a National Historic Landmark. The nineteenth-century mansion hosts more than two hundred writers and artists each year and has been visited by a number of well-known authors—including Truman Capote and Langston Hughes—since the colony was established in 1900. (Saratogian)
The New York Times examines the roles of poet laureates in forty-four states in the wake of “Poet Gate,” the conflict that led to the resignation of North Carolina’s recently appointed poet laureate.
Meanwhile, Kate Angus, a writer and editor (whose publisher Augury Books was featured in the July/August issue’s Small Press Points) discusses what several small presses, including Persea Books, Ugly Duckling Presse, and H_NGM_N, are doing to sell poetry collections in an age where very few Americans are buying them. (Millions)
Apogee Journal, a literary magazine that provides “a platform for unheard voices, including emerging writers of color,” is compiling an "Alternate Canon" in response to Junot Díaz’s recent essay on the New Yorker blog, which discussed the lack of texts by writers of color in MFA curricula. (Harriet)
Following the recent closure of the Air Lounge, a poetry gathering place in Oakland, California, husband and wife duo Siraj Fowler and Daaimah Waqia have created a new poetry venue in Oakland called the Golden Stair. (San Francisco Bay View)
