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.
Endeavor has announced new cost-cutting measures, to be implemented across divisions, including at talent agency WME. “Approximately a third of our population will be impacted by reduced pay for reduced work, furlough, or position elimination, with the majority affected by reduced work and furlough,” a company spokesperson told Variety.
In a recent virtual town hall, Minnesota State University in Moorhead announced it will close New Rivers Press in spring 2022. Founded in 1968, New Rivers Press moved to the university in 2002. The closure of the press is one measure in a slew of program cuts at the school. (Publishers Weekly)
Oakland-based indie publisher speCt! books has started a petition calling for the Poetry Foundation to set up an emergency fund to support poets, small presses, and bookstores. The publisher argues that the Poetry Foundation, due to its financial assets, is uniquely well-equipped to “step up with innovative initiatives to support at risk writers in this difficult time.” As of Friday morning, more than 1,250 people have signed the petition.
“People say they don’t know why we talk about weather, but we know exactly why: so we can avoid talking about other things.” Naoise Dolan talks to the Guardian about her forthcoming novel, Exciting Times, and seeking out the underlying meanings of daily behaviors.
“I wake up early every day and, after breakfast, immediately start writing.” The New York Times profiles Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, whose novel The Discomfort of Evening, translated into English by Michele Hutchison, recently became the first Dutch novel to make the shortlist for the International Booker Prize.
Vogue recommends twenty-two books forthcoming this summer, including Raven Leilani’s Luster and Ottessa Moshfegh’s Death in Her Hands.
In a new series by the Believer and Cosmopolitan, women comic artists are creating graphic shorts about life under the pandemic. The first installment features Gina Wynbrandt.
“What if your quarantine TBR pile is already out of control, or your lockdown brain just can’t cope with anything over 240 characters?” Electric Literature highlights non-book merchandise at independent bookstores across the country.
And the Daily Shout-Out goes to Hugo House, the Seattle-based writer’s center, for its weekly Solitude Social Club: A Bookish Happy Hour, in which guest writers share a drink and “how they’re finding happiness through art and literature in these distancing times.” The next event is scheduled for tonight, April 24, at 5:00 PM PDT. The guest writer is Jess Walter.
