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.
André Aciman has announced that he is writing a sequel to his 2007 novel, Call Me by Your Name, which was adapted into a film last year by Luca Guadagnino. (Vulture)
The end-of-the-year book lists keep coming: The New York Times staff critics—Parul Sehgal, Dwight Garner, and Jennifer Szalai—share their favorite books of 2018 and discuss their year in reading. Stephen Dodson, Ling Ma, Bryan Washington, and Elizabeth McCracken have kicked off the Millions annual “Year in Reading” feature, and Autostraddle shares fifty of the best LGBT books of 2018. Bill Gates has announced his five favorite books of 2018, and Dan Chiasson shares the poetry he was grateful for in 2018. (Washington Post, New Yorker)
Meanwhile, the winners of the Goodreads Choice Awards, which are chosen by popular vote, have been announced.
In other award news, James Frey has won the Bad Sex in Fiction Award “by virtue of the sheer number and length of dubious erotic passages” in his novel Katerina. (Independent)
“He said hatred is a kind of cancer, and when you see it on the rise, you have to fight it right away. Silence allows it to grow and spread.” Ariel Burger talks about Elie Wiesel’s impact as a teacher and his debut novel, Witness, which is based on his years as Wiesel’s teaching assistant. (MPR News)
Online distribution platform Ganxy will close at the end of the year. Established in 2009 by Joshua Cohen and Aleks Jakulin, Ganxy is closing “due to the changing reality of the economics and de facto oligopolies in eBook and music distribution.” (Publishers Weekly)
After a British businessman called J. K. Rowling pretentious for having a writing room, writers rushed to her defense on social media and posted photos of their own writing rooms. (Los Angeles Times)
Starz has acquired the rights to Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series; the series will premiere next year. (Vanity Fair)
