Amanda Gorman Will Bring Poetry to the Super Bowl, Prize for Emerging Writers Drops Age Restriction, and More

by Staff
1.28.21

Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—publishing reports, literary dispatches, academic announcements, and more—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today’s stories.

Former national youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman is scheduled to recite an original poem at the upcoming Super Bowl. The poem will pay tribute to three pandemic heroes—a nurse, a teacher, and a Marine Corps vet—who were selected by the National Football League to serve as honorary captains for the game. Just last week, Gorman performed her poem “The Hill We Climb” for the presidential inauguration. (Vulture)

Earlier this month, writer Jade Wallace spearheaded an open letter calling on the Writers’ Trust of Canada to remove the age restriction on the annual RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. Shortly thereafter, the organization opened the $10,000 prize—previously limited to writers under the age of thirty-five—to writers of any age. In a public statement, the Writers’ Trust wrote: “We have received important feedback about how some writers are simply unable to begin their writing careers before the age of thirty-five. We recognize that an age restriction is unfair, particularly to marginalized writers, and especially those from LGBTQ2IS and BIPOC communities.” (CBC)

Bradley Graham, co-owner of Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C., has been tapped to serve as the next board president of the American Booksellers Association. His election is pending ratification by the ABA membership. Meanwhile, five other booksellers have been formally nominated for election to the board. (Bookselling This Week)

“My fear, anger, hope, and belief in the future are the invisible fingerprints in everything I’ve written and done in 2020.” Writer and activist Alice Wong talks to Catapult about how to build community.

This past October, Wong was one of twenty disabled artists named to the inaugural class of Disability Futures Fellows. M. Leona Godin wrote about the program in the current issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

HBO has announced plans to adapt The Fact of a Body by Alex Marzano-Lesnevich as a limited series. Jeremiah Zagar, who previously adapted We the Animals by Justin Torres, will direct, executive produce, and cowrite the project. (Hollywood Reporter)

Meanwhile, Netflix has acquired the rights to adapt Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee into a television series. Lee will write the script. (Variety)

“I told a friend I want to write breathless anytime I’m asked to note my gender on a form.” Poet Taylor Johnson writes on gender, sentences, and breathing. (Harriet)

Torrey Peters, Melissa Febos, and eight other women writers created a chain of book recommendations. (Lily)