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:
Amy Stolls has been named the new literature director of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Stolls, who is the author of the novels The Ninth Wife and Palms to the Ground, served as the acting literature director of the Washington, D.C.–based arts organization for a year following Ira Silverberg's departure in June 2013. (National Endowment for the Arts)
After partnering recently with Simon & Schuster to offer the publisher’s backlist to subscribers, e-book subscription service Oyster has launched a new app that makes its catalogue available on Android devices, Kindle Fire, and Nook HD.
With the help of writers, librarians, and book critics, NPR has created twelve summer reading lists, each focused on a different mode of travel—including planes, trains, bikes, and boats, and a miscellaneous category that includes drugs, dragons, and giant peaches.
Novelist Jeanette Winterson recently offended a number of her Twitter followers after posting photos of the carcass of a rabbit she killed and cooked along with the Tweet, “Rabbit ate my parsley. I am eating the rabbit.” (Telegraph)
Salon’s Laura Miller argues that it is in the best interests of self-published writers to support Hachette in its fight against Amazon, since its victory would mean higher-priced traditionally published books, creating a higher demand for less expensive, self-published titles.
The Rose Main Reading Room at the main branch of the New York Public Library will remain closed for six months after a plaster rosette fell from the ceiling in May. The reading room’s last renovation was completed in 1998; recently scrapped plans to revamp the library would not have involved an overhaul of the room. (Wall Street Journal)
Bertelsmann, the multinational mass media corproation that owns Penguin Random House, is shutting down its book club business in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, noting that the club’s business model is no longer viable. (Bookseller)
Kim Seong-gon, the president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, speaks with the Korea Times about the recent surge of interest in Korean literature spurred by the worldwide regard for Korean music.
