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:
A theatrical troupe in New York City performed a "simultaneous mash-up" of three great novels—Faulkner's Sound and Fury, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises—in a brisk twenty-two minute show at the New York Public Library last weekend. (New York Times)
Oddly, two of the most famous spy novel franchises are releasing new books on the same day, today: James Bond novel Carte Blanche, and Jason Bourne title The Bourne Dominion, which reinvents the American super spy as an Afghanistan veteran. (Independent)
Are proposals to close local libraries "tantamount to 'child abuse,'" as British author and playwright Alan Bennett claims? "The period after you learn to read is essential. Hinder a child’s access and you damage a child for life," Bennett added. (Telegraph)
With a win for a South African novel at the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award ceremony in London, the country's speculative fiction scene continues to grow its international reputation following the success of the 2009 film District 9. (Guardian)
Just in time for the last installment in the Harry Potter film series—Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, which is set to hit every movie theater in the world in July—a Boston College professor has published what is surely the first full-length academic literary analysis of all seven Harry Potter books, On the Trail of Harry Potter by Vera Lee. (Boston College Chronicle)
Amazon published a list of the most well-read cities in America after compiling data from print and Kindle sales, and guess who tops the list? Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Biographer James Dempsey found an unpublished E. E. Cummings poem in the papers of Scofield Thayer, one of the poet's longtime friends and literary supporters. Read Dempsey's account of the discovery over at the Awl. (via Harriet)
Acclaimed Haitian novelist Edwidge Danticat recalls her experience of meeting Oprah Winfrey and the impact on her life of having her first book, Breath, Eyes, Memory, chosen by the retiring talk show icon for her legendary book club, in the Wall Street Journal.