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 Center for Fiction has announced the finalists for its annual first novel prize.
Joyce Maynard considers how her affair with J. D. Salinger more than forty years ago—she was eighteen, he was fifty-three—would be received now with the rise of the #MeToo movement. (New York Times)
Turnip porridge, Ankovsky pie, and Fet’s dried crust kvass: The recipes that Leo Tolstoy’s wife devised to suit the writer’s vegetarian diet have been translated into English. (Guardian)
“I do not see how any but a colossal genius can write a readable prose book before he is thirty years old.” Mark Twain’s letter of advice to a young writer is being put up for auction. (Atlas Obscura)
“…Gaskell was, in her early works, at least, fiercely and explicitly concerned with the present and its problems.” Hannah Rosefield argues that Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell is unjustly overlooked. (New Yorker)
David Rosenthal, who previously ran Penguin Random House’s Blue Rider Press imprint, will join Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as editor-at-large. (Publishers Weekly)
BuzzFeed recommends thirty-one podcasts for book lovers.
For more literary listening, check out Ampersand: The Poets & Writers Podcast.
Children’s book writers are banding together to fundraise, organize campaigns, and raise awareness about issues such as immigration and gun control. (New York Times)
