Moscow Writers Rally, Steve Almond on Bullying, and More

by
Evan Smith Rakoff
5.14.12

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:

In Moscow yesterday, thousands took to the streets to walk with a group of writers who organized a protest against government efforts to discourage public gatherings. The Los Angeles Times reports the "poet Dmitry Bykov, detective novelist Boris Akunin, children's book writer Eduard Uspensky, bestselling author Lyudmila Ulitskaya and eight others had come up with the idea just four days before."

Novelist Cynthia Thayer's family farm was recently destroyed in a fire. Friends of the author have organized an online fundraiser to help her rebuild. (GalleyCat)

The writer Angelica Garnett, Virginia Woolf's niece, whose 1985 memoir, Deceived With Kindness, described growing up among the Bloomsbury group of writers, died on May 4 in France. She was ninety-three. (New York Times)

Author Steve Almond looks at the Washington Post's Mitt Romney bullying story through the eyes of his adolescent self. (Rumpus)

Filmmaker Lisa Cholodenko—whose most recent movie was The Kids Are All Right—is slated to direct adaptations of Tom Perrota's The Abstinence Teacher, and Cheryl Strayed's new memoir, Wild, with Strayed on board as an associate producer. (Playlist)

Book reporter Julie Bosman examines why in the landscape of proliferating e-readers, some writers are forced to increase their already fast-paced productivity. (New York Times)

In case you missed the radio show Selected Shorts this weekend, listen to Laurie Anderson read One Story-editor Hannah Tinti’s, “Milestones,” and Kelli O’Hara reads “Wunderkind," by Carson McCullers.

Flavorwire rounded up several silly photos of serious writers, including Susan Sontag in a bear suit, and Vladimir Nabokov chasing butterflies.