Patti Smith Is "a Rimbaud With Marshall Amps," Austen Is the Heart (or Brains) of Zombie Film, and More

by Staff
9.1.11

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:

"A Rimbaud with Marshall amps," Patti Smith has picked up another award, the Swedish Polar Music Prize, for showing "how much rock and roll there is in poetry and how much poetry there is in rock and roll." Author Henning Mankell presented the one million kronor prize (worth about $157,000) to Smith, whom he credited with inspiring women all over the world to write poetry and make music. (Billboard)

The forthcoming film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies will remain "incredibly true to Jane Austen," according to director Craig Gillespie. (Jacket Copy)

Adding to the great prison narrative of Russian literature, incarcerated former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has begun writing stories informed by his experiences in jail. The series, which commenced this week with a story of a prisoner who disemboweled himself in protest of his wrongful sentence, appears in the Russian magazine Novoye Vremya (New Times). (Australian)

Seattleites face a week without public libraries, a citywide shutdown that has become somewhat of an annual tradition. (New York Times)

Meanwhile, today begins the American Library Association's nationwide celebration of Library Card Sign-Up Month.

For the broke and literary, Flavorwire has a selection of books to read when you're in the red.

And should you be wandering weak and weary, perhaps you can cool your well-worn heels in one of Publishers Weekly's notable literary cemeteries. (The PWxyz blog is also taking graveyard suggestions in its comments thread.)