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:
Prominent Chechen poet Ruslan Akhtakhanov was murdered in Moscow last year. Police have concluded their investigation, believing it was a case of mistaken identity, as Akhtakhanov's neighbor, a businessman, was later killed in what appears to be a contract murder. (RIA Novosti)
If you were unable to attend Barney Rosset's memorial at Cooper Union's Great Hall in New York City last week, the journal Rosset founded, Evergreen Review, has posted remembrances.
The venerable New Yorker has introduced Page-Turner, a daily blog, featuring "criticism, contention, and conversation about books that matter."
The Guardian reports a new study concludes classic literature's influence on contemporary writers is in decline.
John Updike's childhood home was placed on eBay, yet its owners weren't successful in securing a winning bid. However, the John Updike Society recently purchased the Pennsylvania house for fifty thousand dollars less than the eBay price. (New York Times)
In Giles Harvey's review of the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman—starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as Willy Loman—Harvey recalls a long-ago teacher chiding the student verse his class produced by saying, “It sounds like poetry.” (New Yorker)
Meanwhile, Alice Bolin visits the Montana grave of poet Richard Hugo, author of the well-worn guidebook on creative writing, The Triggering Town. (Paris Review Daily)
If you'd like a painting of your favorite books on the shelf, Jane Mount will paint it. (Ideal Bookshelf)
