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 Swedish Academy will award two Nobel Prizes in literature this year. One laureate will be awarded for 2019 and one for 2018, in compensation for the postponement of last year’s prize as the organization faced a sexual misconduct scandal and a series of resignations. (New York Times)
Counterpoint Press has appointed its vice president executive editor, Dan Smetanka, the independent publishing house’s new editor in chief. (Los Angeles Times)
BuzzFeed has announced the first five titles of One Book, One New York, a citywide book club launched in partnership with the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. The reading list includes novels A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza, Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee, and Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson; young adult novel Nilda by Nicholasa Mohr; and Patti Smith’s memoir Just Kids.
“His speech was, like all his speeches, mesmerizing. There is virtually nothing he won’t say, so when he’s off-script, there’s no way to stop watching once you begin.” Dave Eggers on Donald Trump’s El Paso rally, and why the president could win another election. (Guardian)
In celebration of Women’s History Month, Vulture presents reading recommendations from ten women writers releasing their own books this March. Mira Jacob, author of the upcoming Good Talk, recommends The Greatest of Marlys by Lynda Barry and White Dancing Elephants by Chaya Bhuvaneswar.
“They sent me a really nice rejection. I was such an idiot that I didn’t know it was kind of an invitation to rewrite the ending of the story, and I was also cocky enough to be like, ‘Oh, I’m not rewriting anything,’ so I just sort of rejected their semi-acceptance and a couple of months later rewrote it for a smaller magazine.” George Saunders on (eventually) publishing in the New Yorker. (Electric Literature)
“Don’t lie to yourself. Like, ‘I didn’t come to this poetry show to laugh. I came here to quietly weep in the dark!’” The spoken-word performances of poetry duo Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye. (New Yorker)
At the Atlantic, Nicholas Dames surveys the life story of nineteenth-century celebrity poet Letitia Elizabeth Landon, who first published as “a lady yet in her teens,” and died with a bottle of prussic acid in her hand. “Twine not those red roses for me,— / Darker and sadder my wreath must be.”
