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:
New York City's Word Up Community Bookshop [2], which was in danger of closing, has found a new storefront. (Publishers Weekly)
GalleyCat discovered a blog called Love Reading, Hate Books [2], which gathers entertaining one-star book reviews of great works of literature.
The New York Times asks, “Does great literature make us better? [3]”
Meanwhile, a couple was discovered this past weekend allegedly breaking into the Emily Dickinson Museum [4]—the famed poet's home is owned by Amherst College. A caretaker called the police, and the man and woman were arrested. (MassLive)
In support of poet Ghassan Zaqtan, who was temporarily denied a visa to appear in Canada, several writers, including Marilyn Hacker, Ron Slate, and Alan Shapiro, voiced their opinions. Shapiro wrote, “The vitality of a free society depends on the vitality of the conversation it conducts about itself [5].” (Los Angeles Review of Books)
If you'd like your poetry to travel to Mars, there is an online contest sponsored by NASA [6]. (Millions)
If you missed Allen Ginsberg's birthday yesterday, check out this recording of “A Supermarket in California” [7] at the Academy of American Poets.
Seth Fried highlights some recent communications from a poet we all know on Facebook [8]. (New Yorker)