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:
Microsoft may be planning to launch its own series of tablet computers at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next year to compete with the iPad. (New York Times)
October bookstore sales fell 2.5 percent after larger declines of more than 6 percent in both August and September. (Publishers Weekly)
In a slightly unusual move, Amazon sent a letter to Kindle customers boasting "millions" of Kindles already sold in the holiday quarter. In fact, more Kindles have been sold in the first seventy-three days of this quarter than in the entirety of 2009. (Publishers Weekly)
The Iraqi journalist who threw a shoe at then-President George W. Bush has signed a book deal to publish The Last Salute to President Bush, which will chronicle the moments leading up to the 2008 incident while also telling the story of "Iraqi suffering, starting with the 1991 Gulf War." (Associated Press)
Upon further inquiry, Harvard University Police are no longer investigating the damage done to a section of gay- and lesbian-themed books at the Lamont Library as a hate crime. Apparently, a bottle of urine of unknown origin was accidentally spilled on the titles by a library employee. (Harvard Crimson)
According to the Bookseller, Curtis Brown Creative in London is launching "the first creative writing school to be run by a literary agency." The inaugural session starts on May 5 next year and will be open to fifteen students.
Apple launches one hundred titles with illustrations and photos in the iBookstore today, thus opening the door for publishers to sell color e-books of their giant libraries of illustrated books. (New York Times)
The Daily Beast asked Margaret Atwood and Sam Lipsyte to help President Obama fight media claims that he's "lost control of his narrative" by offering a "rewrite" of the storyline of his presidency.
In response to the Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction Award, the Guardian has gathered its top ten "good sex" in fiction honorees.
