More Müller in English, OUP Crowns Word of the Year, 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:

The New Oxford American Dictionary has announced its 2009 Word of the Year, the verb “unfriend”—which beat out “birther,” “sexting,” and “zombie bank.”

Editor and bookshop proprietor Otto Penzler has been recruited by Atlantic to head up a new imprint this January (Press Release).

Two novels by recent Noble Prize-winner Herta Müller have been scheduled to appear in English for the first time (New York Times).

Digital publishing firm Aptara has developed a platform for converting large volumes of content into the widely accessible ePub format (Publishers Weekly).

More than 3,500 signatures have been added to a petition protesting the possible closure of Boston’s historic State Library of Massachusetts (Library Journal).

Bookseller Borders has reportedly disbanded the British division of its e-commerce team (Bookseller).

Meanwhile, the owner of Borders’ Asia Pacific operations has announced a new chain of media and stationery stores scheduled to launch next year in Sydney (Billboard).

In more Aussie news, the CEO of bookstore chain Dymocks will host a conference for retailers unhappy with the government’s recent decision to leave book import rules in place (Sydney Morning Herald).