On the Road Adaptation to Film This Summer, Burkle Sues Barnes & Noble, and More

by Staff
5.7.10

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:

According to a report in the New York Times, two separate literary festivals closed last night in Jerusalem, "each oblivious to the other. The Palestine Festival of Literature and the International Writers Festival of Israel both took place this week without mutual awareness or acknowledgment, and each closed Thursday night with readings and songs."

Ron Burkle, the billionaire Barnes & Noble investor prevented earlier this year from becoming majority shareholder by the company's board, is suing the book retailer for breaching its fiduciary duty. (Reuters

A film adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road is set to begin shooting in August, starring, among others, Kristen Stewart, who also stars in the Twilight adaptations. (Hollywood Reporter)

In 1939 William Carlos Williams gave the first ever poetry reading at the 92nd Street Y, home of New York City's famed Unterberg Poetry Center. Yesterday, the Poetry Center released a delicious recording of Williams reading his poems at the Y in 1954.

NPR takes a closer look at the Allen Ginsberg photography exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. 

Amazon's upcoming firmware update for the Kindle promises to add some spice to the device. (ars technica)

Open Road, "a digital content company that publishes and markets e-books," has set up a Twitter account for the deceased author William Styron to promote the publisher's release of eight of the author's titles as e-books. (Wall Street Journal)  

A Providence man "claims three officers beat him up because they didn't like a poem he wrote." The offending poem centered on a former Providence police officer who had been accidently shot by fellow officers, as well as another man who stole a Providence policeman's gun and shot him with it. Courthouse News Service, a news wire for lawyers, ran this item under the somewhat callous headline "Everyone's a Critic."