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.
Last month the Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit seeking to block Penguin Random House’s acquisition of Simon & Schuster; the two publishers have now filed a joint response. “The government wants to block the merger under the misguided theory that it will diminish compensation to just the highest-paid authors,” said lawyer Daniel Petrocelli. The New York Times notes the high monetary stakes of the case: If the acquisition is blocked, Penguin Random House will owe Simon & Schuster a $200 million termination fee.
“Almost instantly, I found his pedagogy to be just as fluid as his writing, collapsing the institutional demand for in-class hierarchies and helping his students get into the funk of this here Black life.” Tirhakah Love recalls the transformative experience of studying with culture writer Greg Tate, who died this month. (Vulture)
“It’s difficult indeed to imagine the world of letters without Roberto Calasso; but the books he championed, for all of us, were in the best of hands.” Jonathan Galassi pays tribute to Roberto Calasso, the author and publisher of Adelphi Edizioni, who died earlier this year. (FSG Work in Progress)
Due to concern about new variants of COVID-19, Macmillan has decided to cancel plans to reopen its office on January 10. Employees may still elect to use the office in the interim, but a new date for a formal reopening has not yet been set. (Publishers Weekly)
Luis H. Francia and Eric Gamalinda recall the curatorial decisions involved in editing the anthology Flippin’: Filipinos on America, which was published twenty-five years ago by the Asian American Writers Workshop. “It was important to let readers know that we didn’t just come out of the blue,” says Gamalinda. (Margins)
“I just don’t really think about capital L literature anymore. I write because it pleases me and I write stuff that I would want to read.” Tom Bissell discusses his new story collection, Creative Types, and his evolving understanding of how to approach the writing life. (Los Angeles Times)
A first excerpt from Jennifer Egan’s next novel, The Candy House, was released yesterday by Entertainment Weekly. The novel will be published in April by Scribner and features characters from her Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad.
The New York Times Book Review recaps its annual Ten Best Books selections from the past eighteen years.
