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:
The poetry community is mourning three recent deaths. Leslie Scalapino, an avant garde poet, playwright, essayist, and editor, died on Friday in Berkeley, California, at the age of seventy-six. (East Bay Express) Peter Orlovsky, a poet and longtime partner of Allen Ginsberg, died on Sunday in Vermont at the age of seventy-six. (Los Angeles Time) Andrei Voznesensky, one of Russia's most celebrated poets, died today at his home in Moscow at the age of seventy-seven. (New York Times)
Bestselling Swedish author Henning Mankell was on board a Gaza-bound aid flotilla attacked by Israeli soldiers. Mankell was not among the ten activists killed in the raid, but he is now being detained in Israel and faces a choice between deportation and a trial in an Israeli court. (AFP)
The secret Vatican archives, "possibly the most mysterious collection of documents in the world" and home to some fifty miles of dark wooden bookshelves, are no longer a secret. (Telegraph)
Indigo Books & Music, Canada's largest book retailer, announced yesterday that its quarterly profits dropped 74 percent due to expenses related to the launch of the Kobo e-reader. (Reuters)
Dave Eggers will take his children's literacy movement worldwide with the founding of 826 London. (Guardian)
The winners of this year's Lamda Literary Awards were announced last week in an event at New York City's SVA Theater. Check out all twenty-four winners (including one tie) here.
As it turns, Harper Lee might not be so thrilled about the plethora of fiftieth anniversary events for To Kill a Mockingbird. (Smithsonian)
Publishing experts have quelled the fears of critics anxious about the potential nationwide impact of the increasingly conservative curriculum adopted by the Texas Board of Education, which is the second-largest purchaser of textbooks behind California. (Associated Press)
One of the nominees in the running for the Oxford professor of poetry post is also a neuroscientist, and he thinks "poetry has more capacity to change people than psychotherapy." (Guardian)
