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.
Young adult fiction writers Emily Gale and Nova Weetman have launched a Twitter campaign #AuthorsForFireys to raise money for Australian fire services that are battling intense bushfires. Various authors are using the hashtag to auction off special prizes, such as signed books or advance looks at works-in-progress. (Book Riot)
“When I think of the first Big Yes, I think of the moment that marks the first big shift, either external or internal, in the trajectory of a writer’s career or their understanding of themselves as a writer.” Benjamin Schaefer asks ten authors to reflect on their first “Big Yes.” T Kira Madden, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, De’Shawn Charles Winslow, among others, offer responses. (Literary Hub)
Elizabeth Wurtzel died on Tuesday at age fifty-two due to metastatic breast cancer. Her 1994 memoir, Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America, was noted for reviving the conversation around clinical depression and for modeling and popularizing a confessional writing style. (New York Times)
David Shariatmadari analyzes the stigma surrounding African American Vernacular English. (Paris Review Daily)
Caroline Zancan reflects on the unique nature of the campus novel. “What is it about an uninterrupted stretch of lawn or a few steepled buildings that makes us behave so badly?” She recommends seven books plus a short story that represent some of the best of the genre. (Electric Literature)
Frannie Jackson previews ten of the most anticipated nonfiction titles of the year. The first on the calendar: Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener. (Paste)
Wiener recently answered Ten Questions from Poets & Writers Magazine.
The Philadelphia Inquirer talks to Patrick Blagrave, the editor of the literary magazine Prolit, about fighting capitalism through art.
The Washington Post recommends several graphic novels forthcoming in the first half of 2020.