Colum McCann on 9/11, Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing, and More

by
Evan Smith Rakoff
2.8.12

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:

The Chicago Police Department has begun a voluntary writing workshop for officers, taught by a novelist, Charlie Newton. He tells them, “Don’t dodge race, don’t dodge sex, don’t dodge the war on drugs because people told you they’re winning it and you on the street know that they’re not.” (New York Times)

John Sargent, who passed away on Sunday, led Doubleday during publishing's storied era of daily martini lunches, escorting Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis around Manhattan, and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Theodore Roethke sometimes sleeping in the bathtub. The Wall Street Journal has more on the life of this interesting figure.

A new series has launched on YouTube's Intelligent Television called The Paul Holdengraber Show—its premiere episode features novelist Colum McCann discussing numerous topics, including September 11, 2001.

Author Melissa Febos interviews poet and professional dog trainer Susie DeFord about the pros and cons of self-publishing. DeFord recently released Dogs of Brooklyn, an attractively designed book or poems recounting life as a New York City dog walker. (Rumpus)

A Kickstarter campaign has launched for a new project for the literary website Writers' Houses, created by A. N. Devers. Her aim is to "visit at least fifteen of Great Britain's writers' houses in fifteen days, photograph them, document them, learn their facts, stories, and mythologies, and bring the information back to the website."

Shelf Awareness lists ten suggested pairings of local craft beers with independent bookshops around the country.

Brown University has partnered with the University of Tulsa on a Modernist Journals Project—digital copies of magazines that showcased early modernist poetry have been scanned, cataloged, and made freely available online. (New Yorker)

The Paris Review Daily examines our complicated relationship with bookshelves.