Editor Christian Wiman Leaving Poetry Magazine, Susan Shapiro's Memoir Advice, and More

by
Evan Smith Rakoff
1.2.13

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:

Publishers Weekly reports independent bookstores experienced a rise in sales over the holidays.

After ten years helming the venerable Poetry magazine, editor Christian Wiman announced he is leaving his position to join the faculty at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School.

With the best books of 2012 lists behind us, the Atlantic speaks with David Gutowski, who gathers and updates an aggregate of over one thousand books lists on his website, Largehearted Boy.

On his blog, author Alexander Chee answers a query concerning a writer applying to a fiction program although the student has written a memoir. (Koreanish)

Meanwhile, author and writing instructor Susan Shapiro reveals the lessons she's learned in the classroom, and in publishing her last memoir. "My rule for first person nonfiction is: question, challenge and trash yourself more than anyone else."

To start 2013 off on a good foot, the Review Review delivers an easy five-step guide to submitting your writing.

On his blog, Nicholas Carr considers recent surveys and reported trends in the e-reading landscape, and offers what he's gleaned. (Rough Type)

The BBC has created Blandings—a six-part television series based on the work of P. G. Wodehouse. (Guardian)

Speaking of the master humorist, author and editor Ed Park looks at P. G. Wodehouse's Life in Letters, due out next month from Norton. (Bookforum)

In collaboration with the University of Iowa, Prairie Lights Bookstore has created a small press—one of its first titles will be a book of poetry by Philip Levine. (Shelf Awareness)