Pokémon Go Inspires Book Game, Weird Guinness Book Records, and More

by
Staff
9.6.16

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:

A number of literary agents and publishers speculate that after the end of Barak Obama’s presidency, he and Michelle Obama may sign book contracts estimated between $20 million and $45 million. (New York Times)

NPR’s Rachel Martin interviews author Belle Boggs about her new memoir and cultural study, The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine, and Motherhood. Boggs’s book is featured in “Nine More New Memoirs,” in the September/October 2016 issue of Poets & Writers.

Best-selling author Ann Patchett speaks with the Guardian about owning a bookstore and about her new novel, Commonwealth, which comes out September 13 from Harper.

Flavorwire provides a look at ten “weird and wonderful” Guinness World Records titles about books.

While we think every day should be National Read a Book Day, today it’s official. According to a recent Pew Research study, approximately 73 percent of Americans have read at least one book in the past year. Need suggestions for what to read? Here are several lists of books to read this month courtesy of Library Reads, Vulture, and Publishers Weekly. (KXAN.com)

Inspired by the recent Pokémon Go sensation, a Belgian primary school teacher has developed an online game in which people search for books rather than cartoon monsters. In “Book Hunters,” players hide books and post pictures and hints while others attempt to hunt them down. Created by Aveline Gregoire, the game has attracted more than forty thousand people to Gregoire’s Facebook game page. (MSN.com)

PBS NewsHour remembers late Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Philip Levine, and his mission to “document and honor the lives of working-class people.” Levine passed away last year.