Duffy's Royal Wedding Poem on the Way, V. S. Naipaul to Stop Writing, and More

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:

British poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy issued a statement saying she was "thrilled" at the engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton and looks forward to commemorating the occasion in verse. (Press Association)

Mark Twain's recently released autobiography—the first volume of it, anyway—is a smash hit across America and the book's publisher, University of California Press, can't keep up with demand despite six additional printings. (New York Times)

The Heritage Lottery Fund gave a nice holiday gift of two million British pounds to the only surviving London home of Charles Dickens, to help with a much-needed renovation. (Guardian)

The book industry in Ireland has dropped "in value and volume" by over 16 percent this year, according to the Bookseller.

Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul has said that he may have one more book in him, but that at the age of seventy-eight he is "very old" and ready to end his literary career. (Hindu)

The bookstores at Brown University and University of Massachusetts Amherst have been hit particularly hard by digital competition, according to the Brown Daily Herald and the Republican, respectively.

Eighty-year-old Nigerian author Chinua Achebe will make a rare public appearance tonight at the University of Leeds in England. (Bioscience Technology)

In anticipation of black Friday, Huffington Post has some rainforest-safe book gift ideas.