Bob Woodward to Publish Book on Trump, Don Lee on Persevering as a Writer, and More

by
Staff
7.31.18

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:

Veteran investigative reporter Bob Woodward will publish Fear: Trump in the White House, a book on the first two years of the Trump administration, with Simon & Schuster on September 11. (CNN)

“If you want to do this, you can’t expect accolades. You can’t expect riches or fame. You can’t expect anyone will ever care one iota about what you write. You can only try to find solace and satisfaction in the work itself, and carry on.” Don Lee on what Richard Yates taught him about persevering as a writer. (Electric Literature)

Children’s book literary agent Danielle Smith has closed her agency, Lupine Grove Creative, after being accused of forging offer letters to her clients. The news broke last week when author Heidi Helig posted about Smith on a private Facebook group, and YA author Katherine Locke, with Helig’s permission, shared the post on Twitter. (Publishers Lunch (log-in required))

“In these poems I found proof in everything America was telling me Iranian women were not and that Iran was telling Iranian women they shouldn’t be. Bold, brilliant, lustful, angry, difficult. Those poems saved me. They still do.” Jasmin Darznik shares how Forugh Farrokhzad’s poetry gives her hope. (Literary Hub)

Poets Bruce Beasley and Julie Marie Wade discuss cosmology, teaching creative writing, and poetry as “the negotiation between errand and awe.” (Rumpus)

Jean Guerrero talks about crisscrossing the U.S.–Mexico border and her new memoir, Crux: A Cross Border Memoir. (NPR)

BookRiot tries out NoveList, a book recommendation app and the “best book database you’ve never heard of.”

Playwright Ian Allen considers the literature of white supremacists, which consists of mostly self-published books that “range broadly in tone and topic, from dark, foreboding dramas to broad, slapstick comedies; from neo-Confederate romances to futuristic dystopian nightmares.” (New York Times)