E-poetry Festival in May, Electronic Publishing Bingo, Microsoft Sues B&N, and More

by Staff
3.22.11

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:

Amanda Hocking, the self-published author who made headlines this year for landing on USA Today's top fifty best-seller list, may soon land a one-million-dollar traditional-publishing contract for a new four-book series. (New York Times)

Lendl, the Kindle e-book-lending site that popped up last month to take advantage of Amazon's e-book loan policy, has been shut down by the retail giant. (Guardian)

Microsoft is suing Barnes & Noble for infringing on its patents in production of the Nook and NookColor devices. (Publishers Weekly) Not to be outdone, Apple is suing Amazon for use of the term "App store." (Bloomberg)

The New Yorker's next issue, which is almost entirely dedicated to the disasters in Japan, will feature a reprint of a Haruki Murakami story inspired by the 1995 Kobe earthquake that ran in the magazine in 2001. (Jacket Copy)

Some geneticists wrote a line from James Joyce into the DNA of the first synthetic life form last year, only to receive a cease-and-desist letter from the Irish author's estate, citing use without permission. (Forbes)

The tenth annual E-poetry Festival will take place in Buffalo, New York, from May eighteenth to the twenty-first and feature poets and critics from around the world. (loriemerson.net)

One city in California may end up paying the lease bill for seven more years on a subsidized Borders store slated for closure sometime in April. (Whitter Daily News)

The editors of the AP Stylebook have declared that the word "e-mail" is no longer correct. A hyphen-less existence for email dawns. (Geek.com)

Electronic-publishing bingo, anyone? (Whatever)