The Midnight Poet, Elizabeth Gilbert's Curios Shop, and More

by Staff
8.13.10

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:

As the Eat, Pray, Love juggernaut hits theaters nationwide this week, author Elizabeth Gilbert is holding down the fort at Two Buttons, the curios shop in New Jersey that she owns with her husband. (New York Times)

According to the New York Times, "war broke out over control of Barnes & Noble on Thursday." 

Jacket Copy offers a roundup of literary festivals taking place in October across the country, including the New Yorker Festival, Litquake, and Wordstock

Authors in Ohio are donating their time and autographed books in an effort to save the Newcomerstown Public Library, which is struggling to stay open due to state budget cuts. (Publishers Weekly)

The Washington Post reports on the trend of authors who use pen names and then publicly reveal their true identities, sometimes in the same announcement. 

An unknown poet in West Virginia who goes by the moniker The Midnight Poet is leaving poems on the doorsteps of Morgantown homes at night. (Charleston Gazette)

Penguin shipped its half billionth book last month, and fittingly enough that book was Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, the best-selling author ever on Penguin's Hamish Hamilton imprint. (Booktrade)

The Chronicle of Higher Education took a closer look at the circumstances surrounding the recent suicide of Virginia Quarterly Review managing editor Kevin Morrissey. And so did C-ville.