Cloud Atlas Film Trailer, Five Novels for Summer, and More

by
Evan Smith Rakoff
7.26.12

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:

A trailer for the hugely anticipated film adaptation of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas reached the public prematurely this morning, and has since been removed. Indiewire calls it "staggeringly ambitious."

In light of recent developments in the Justice Department's antitrust suit, industry veteran Mike Shatzkin predicts the future of the e-book marketplace. (Shatzkin Files)

Random House is launching a television division to develop adaptations based on its titles for the small screen. The new media partnership is an extension of its film unit, which it created in 2005. (Publishers Weekly)

FastPencil, a self-publishing company, is offering authors potential access to Barnes & Noble shelves, and merchandising features on the Nook. (paidContent)

Atticus Books wants your rejections letters.

"He was six foot five, weighed well over two hundred pounds and had a stentorian voice cultivated by his career as a basso profundo." The New York Times looks at the life of novelist Vladimir Nabokov's “best translator,” his son, Dmitri.

GQ lists the five books everyone should read this summer, including The World Without You by Joshua Henkin, and Gillian Flynn's bestselling Gone Girl.

"I had been a great admirer of your books for quite a time and had always wanted to discuss with you the possibility of doing the proverbial 'really good' science-fiction movie." Today is Stanley Kubrick's birthday. (Letters of Note)