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:
“All my life, I have felt like a minor character, and I do not mind. Most writers feel more comfortable watching and knowing things without ever being recognized. I love people who are rarely noticed…. I know that even if a person is quiet, not terribly special looking, nor accomplished, that person can be vital for a moment or vital to another person. It’s my job to notice those moments and put it down on paper so it fits into the story.” Min Jin Lee talks with debut novelist Lillian Li about writing fiction. (Margins)
In a recent installment of our weekly series Ten Questions, Li talks about her writing process.
The Strand Magazine will publish a 1956 story by Ernest Hemingway for the first time. The story, “A Room on the Garden Side,” takes place at the Ritz hotel in Paris at the end of the Nazi occupation. (Guardian)
Russian dissident and novelist Vladimir Voinovich died last week at the age of eighty-five. Voinovich was known for his satirical novels, most notably The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin. (Washington Post)
Angela Watercutter on using Goodreads, feeling like everyone reads more than you, and the “crushing weight of literary FOMO.” (Wired)
Read more about the history of Goodreads in a recent issue of Poets & Writers.
After publishing a poem by Anders Carlson-Wee that uses Black vernacular and is told from the perspective of a homeless person, the poetry editors of the Nation, Stephanie Burt and Carmen Gimenéz Smith, have apologized, stating that publishing a poem with such “disparaging and ableist language” was a mistake. (New York Times)
Barnes & Noble reports that sales of books related to anxiety have gone up 25 percent in the past year. (CNBC)
“Getting started—and other small victories—might be all it takes.” Olga Khazan asks writing experts “how to write a book without losing your mind.” (Atlantic)
Vanity Fair considers the trend of “bouquet books,” or books with dust jackets depicting bold and lush flowers.
Russian designer Maria Chernakova has made a pop-up version of Caspar Henderson’s The Book of Barely Imagined Beings. (Colossal)
