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:
Publishers Weekly investigates whether longtime AWP executive director David Fenza was fired for creating a hostile work environment. The magazine reports that several women have made complaints against Fenza and conference director Christian Teresi regarding gender-based discrimination and bullying. Fenza was fired from the organization in March.
The Arch Mission Foundation and the space company Astrobotic are working to send a microfiche library to the moon in 2020, which will include Wikipedia and the Rosetta Project. The foundation has already sent Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy on SpaceX’s Tesla Roadster, which was launched into space in February. (TechCrunch)
Researchers have found two hidden pages in Anne Frank’s diary that she had originally taped over. The pages feature Frank musing on sex, contraception, and sex work. (TIME)
Norman Mailer’s Brooklyn home, which the author outfitted to look like a ship, complete with wooden ceilings, gangplanks, and hammocks, is up for sale for $2.4 million. (Town & Country)
In light of Sally Kohn’s The Opposite of Hate and Amy Chozick’s Chasing Hillary recently being called out for factual inaccuracies, the Guardian considers the publishing industry’s inability to fact-check books.
The writers whose work will appear in the 2018 O. Henry Prize Stories, edited by Laura Furman, have been announced. (Literary Hub)
Meanwhile, the judges of the Wodehouse Prize, Britain’s prize for comic fiction, have announced that they will not award a prize this year since none of the sixty-two submissions “prompted unanimous, abundant laughter from the judging panel.” (Washington Post)
“I did many other things when I decided to quit writing, but I ultimately came back to writing years later. My refusal didn’t stick because my desire to write and to teach became stronger than the repulsive lessons of the institution, although I still carry all of it with me and use it to understand where I am.” Poet and critic Anne Boyer talks about class, writing, and romantic love. (Mythos)
Bantam has acquired the rights to Stephen Hawking’s final book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, which will be published in October. (Publishers Weekly)
