Pat Conroy Offering Free Film Rights, New Haruki Murakami Story, and More

by
Evan Smith Rakoff
10.24.13

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:

A new story by bestselling Japanese author Haruki Murakami is available free online at the New Yorker. (GalleyCat)

Hector Tobar reports that the Texas Book Festival, which is ongoing, has received bad press over a lack of diversity in this year’s roster of more than two hundred authors. Festival literary director Steph Opitz answered criticism in a letter to the Texas Observer, stating, “I, too, am disappointed that there is not more diversity in this year’s line-up.” (Los Angeles Times)

Fast Company explains the importance of your workspace, and what changes can improve performance.

Author Pat Conroy is offering to give away film rights to his follow-up to The Great Santini, which starred Robert Duvall in the 1979 adaptation. If a film is made of his new book The Death of Santini, Conroy hopes the offer will persuade Duvall and his co-stars to reprise their roles. (USA Today)

The Guardian considers science fiction hero Ray Bradbury’s unknown legacy of realist stories.

“To think about a place has always been a way into a story.” Novelist Donna Tartt speaks with Laura Miller at Salon.

Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle looks at how certain famed authors—including Donna Tartt, Tom Wolfe, and Mark Twain—wear a trademark mode of dress.

The current issue of Poetry includes four letters by Robert Creeley.