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.
Steve Haruch profiles Shirikiana Aina Gerima, the co-owner of Sankofa Video, Books & Café in Washington, D.C., which specializes in Black literature and media. As a filmmaker and bookseller, Gerima prizes creative and professional freedom. “I feel like my strength, and the strength of people who want change, comes in independence.” (Don’t Write Alone)
“My taste runs across the board and I hope that in remaining true to my own sensibility and what I find interesting, I will bring about some kind of change to this ossified structure.” In an interview by Thessaly La Force, Doubleday executive editor Thomas Gebremedhin reflects on growing up as the child of Eritrean immigrants and seeking out the voices missing in publishing. (SSENSE)
“I’m surprised to hear my American acquaintances referencing the 8/14 earthquake—and the hurricane that struck a few days later—as something banal, as if to say that, this being Haiti, we can expect little more than catastrophe and chaos.” Novelist and scholar Myriam J. A. Chancy mourns the damage caused by the recent earthquake disaster in Haiti—which led to the death of over two thousand people—and recommends reading material that brings the country and its history to life. (NPR)
The winners of this year’s American Book Awards have been revealed. Administered by the Before Columbus Foundation, the awards “recognize literary excellence without limitations or restrictions” and are not given in specific genre categories. There are sixteen winning books this year, including Carolyn Forché’s In the Lateness of the World and Ayad Akhtar’s Homeland Elegies.
Literary Hub reacts to Sally Rooney’s limited publicity schedule for her latest novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You. “More power to Rooney—if you don’t have to do book promotion, why put yourself through it?”
“What is the depth of someone’s darkness? I’m always curious about that. And fiction can be a way to explore or imagine what that kind of depth can look like without the real life danger.” Elle Nash, the author of the story collection Nudes, considers writing a safe place for exploration. (Creative Independent)
The Beijing International Book Fair was scheduled to open today, but organizers recently announced that the fair is being postponed due to coronavirus cases in the city. New fair dates have not been set. (Publishers Weekly)
Electric Literature recommends ten books produced by women authors and translators to commemorate Women in Translation month.
