Richard Nash Examines Business of Literature, Fifty Million Dollar Gift, and More

by
Evan Smith Rakoff
3.8.13

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:

Helen Zell will give fifty million dollars to the writing program at the University of Michigan. (Washington Post)

Meanwhile, an anonymous donor gave one hundred thousand books to students in the Mississippi Delta. (Cleveland Currrent)

Siddhartha Mitter reports from the Congo Literary Festival. (New Yorker)

Tibetan poet and activist Tsering Woeser was denied a passport by China to accept an International Women's Day honor in the United States. (Huffington Post)

Because of its author contracts, Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) has declared Random House imprints Hydra and Alibi ineligible for inclusion. (Publishers Weekly)

Elizabeth Bastos describes particular yoga poses for literary types. (Book Riot)

"Yet what we have right now is a system that produces great literature in spite of itself." Publisher and editor Richard Nash examines the business of literature. (Virginia Quarterly Review)

The Telegraph ranks the worst sex scenes in contemporary literature.