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.
In a press release, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame announced Sandra Cisneros as the latest recipient of its Fuller Award, an annual prize that honors “a writer with strong Chicago roots who has made an outstanding lifetime contribution to literature.” Cisneros will be formally honored at a free virtual event on March 13.
Parents called in complaints after a teacher in Murray, Utah, read Call Me Max by Kyle Lukoff, a book about a young transgender boy, to her third-grade class. Lukoff responded to the controversy, “I find in my experience that adults think that term unlocks a lot of confusion in children when it really doesn’t.” The complaints also prompted the school district to suspend its Diversity Equity Council, which puts together its “equity book bundles” program, despite the fact that Call Me Max was brought in independently by a student. (Associated Press)
“Any story has infinite possibility to adaptation, so I felt like I had to try multiple approaches.” Eleanor Catton recalls the process of adapting her eight-hundred-page epic, The Luminaries, for television. (Los Angeles Times)
Writers Samantha Campbell and Matthew Gilbert have launched Black Moon Magazine, an online literary journal that “dedicates itself to the discovered intersections of mixed-medium, art, and diversity.” (University of Arkansas)
“I bring up Gwendolyn Brooks to any Black poet and each time the obvious is made more evident: Gwendolyn Brooks is an ancestor to us all; we are all writing in her lineage.” Bernard Ferguson writes in praise of Gwendolyn Brooks. (Paris Review Daily)
“Wrestling was always on in our house, but the 1992 Royal Rumble was special. We watched this tape together often, each time pretending to be unaware of the outcome.” Pardeep Toor writes about how watching professional wrestling defined his relationship with his father. (Electric Literature)
“Before an object or notion drifts, there is often the act of resisting it.” Asiya Wadud ponders the meanings of the word drift. (Harriet)
Diving into the archives of the New York Times Book Review, Dan Saltzstein finds clues for how to write an effective love story.
