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:
The Association of Writers & Writing Programs announced it has ended its official relationship with the University of Maryland, its host institution, and will operate as an independent nonprofit as of today. The decision comes several months after the organization fired its longtime executive director, David Fenza, for undisclosed reasons. (Publishers Weekly)
Read more about the decision to fire Fenza in a pair of reports from Poets & Writers editor in chief Kevin Larimer.
In October Penguin Young Readers and John Greene will release four of Greene’s best-selling novels in a new miniature format: the flipback. Popular in the Netherlands, the flipback is about the size of a cell phone and is read by flipping the pages up rather than turning them. (Washington Post)
In a survey about the publishing industry conducted by Publishers Weekly, 22 percent of women reported being sexually harassed by a colleague.
The New Yorker profiles Astrid Holleeder, a former criminal defense attorney who is the star witness of an ongoing murder case against her brother Willem Holleeder, the biggest crime boss in the Netherlands. Mulholland Books will publish an English translation of Holleeder’s blockbuster 2016 memoir, Judas, tomorrow.
Laura van den Berg chats with NPR about the appeal of the horror genre and how it influenced her new novel, The Third Hotel.
“I’m a black American, and there is so much of our existence that has not been heard or recorded throughout the course of history. Knowing that I have the power to write something down, that it got recorded, for somebody’s pain to get seen, is overwhelming to me.” Attica Locke talks with Esi Edugyan about fiction and telling painful stories. (Guardian)
The Atlantic looks back on the history of the dictionary and how the role of the dictionary is changing “thanks to the internet, the decline of print dictionaries, and the political consequences of an anything-goes approach to language.”
Read more about how the dictionary is made in a recent Q&A with the editor-at-large of Merriam-Webster.
