Cory Doctorow Tackles Censorship, Amazon Takes on a New Adversary, and More

by
Staff
6.11.14

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:

In addition to ongoing conflicts with Hachette and German publisher Bonnier Media Group, Amazon has added Warner Home Video to its growing list of opponents. The Internet retailer recently removed the ability to preorder forthcoming Warner films on DVD and Blu-ray. (New York Times

Three federal judges from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the 2012 verdict in a lawsuit over copyright infringement filed by the Authors Guild against HathiTrust for the latter’s use of Google-created content in its digital library. The original decision from lower-court judge Harold Baer was made in favor of HathiTrust’s preservation of the so-called “unauthorized” scans of books created by Google. (Publishers Weekly)

After a high school principal in Pensacola, Florida, allegedly pulled Cory Doctorow’s novel Little Brother from its summer reading list because it "questioned authority," the author arranged to have his publisher send two hundred copies of the book to the school. He also informed the public of the situation on the popular blog BoingBoing, where he is an editor. (Los Angeles Times)

Laurence Copel, founder of the Lower Ninth Ward Street Library in New Orleans, has won the Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced With Adversity, a new award honoring book lenders. Copel founded the library as part of efforts to rebuild the city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. (San Francisco Chronicle)

London-based newspaper the Guardian has announced author Tom Moran’s novel, Dinosaurs and Prime Numbers, as the winner of its first Self-published Book of the Month, a new competition cosponsored by the newspaper and British publisher Legend Times. (Washington Post)

Investor Harsha Gowda has sold the remainder of his shares in retailer Books-A-Million. (Publishers Lunch)

Bookseller Barnes & Noble will close one of its Phoenix-based stores on August 2. (Shelf Awareness)

Poet Paul Muldoon was recently awarded the position of distinguished professor in English and creative writing at Lancaster University in the U.K. (Times Higher Education)