Literary Salons Return to Baghdad, Books a Priority Despite Sluggish Economy, 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:

Baghdad, a city that once boasted more than two hundred literary salons, has seen about a dozen salons emerge over the last two years for the first time since Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party came to power in 1968. (New York Times)

The Authors Guild and the Association of Authors' Representatives released statements largely in support of Macmillan's fight with Amazon over e-book pricing, Publishers Weekly reported, while the international publishing community is closely monitoring developments from the perspective that "what happens in the United States will dictate what happens elsewhere in the world." (Bookseller)

Bomb attacks are scaring shoppers away from the many second-hand bookstores in Islamabad, Pakistan. (Christian Science Monitor) 

Three-quarters of adults surveyed in a new online poll said they would cut shopping, dining out, holidays, and going to the movies before they stopped buying books. (Reuters)

An investor is seeking to purchase a 37 percent stake in Barnes & Noble, which would make him the largest shareholder for the retail chain. (Business Week)

The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association sent a letter to publishers protesting recent cuts in field sales representatives, a move the booksellers maintain "will be responsible for the disappearance of book culture." (Publishers Weekly)

Sarah Palin's political action committee spent $63,000 on copies of her own book. (Los Angeles Times)

President Obama's 2011 budget proposal freezes funding for the NEA and federal libraries, according to the New York Times and Library Journal respectively. 

The Texas prison system has banned thousands of classic titles over the years, despite appeals from inmates to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. (Statesman)