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 American Civil Liberties Union has challenged South Carolina's policy of barring the state's prisoners from reading any book other than the bible while in jail. (State)
According to the Guardian, Amazon is pushing even further into the publishing business with the announcement of a new imprint that will release romance novels. "Romance is one of our biggest and fastest-growing categories, particularly among Kindle customers," said Amazon Publishing vice president Jeff Belle.
Grand Central will publish a prequel to Mario Puzo's The Godfather in June of 2012. The Family Corleone will be written by novelist and playwright Ed Falco (who also happens to be the uncle of Edie Falco, who played a gangster's wife, Carmelo Soprano, on the hit HBO series The Sopranos). (Jacket Copy)
Public libraries in Edinburgh, Scotland, are about to get an upgrade as the city plans to introduce downloading stations at various branches to allow readers to check out library e-books with ease. (Scotsman)
According to MarketWatch, Barnes & Noble will debut a new e-reader device later this month.
The National Book Foundation's Innovations in Reading Prize winners for 2011 are Kore Press, Electric Literature, the Young Adult Review Network (YARN), and Burt Freeman's My Own Book program.
A Barnes & Noble employee has been arrested for allegedly stealing almost five thousand dollars from the Upper West Side store in New York City where he works. (DNAinfo.com)
As Borders continues to struggle to emerge from bankruptcy, the company's CEO vows to keep pushing: "All I can tell you is that we are here fighting to the end,” Mike Edwards told AnnArbor.com. “We know we have a business plan that works, but it requires a lot of support to get it there, and our publishers are going to make or break our ability to transform this company at the end of the day.”
