Whiting Lit Mag Prize Winners, Pop-Up Beach Libraries, and More

by
Staff
6.27.18

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 storie​​​​​​s:

The Whiting Foundation has announced A Public Space, Fence, and Words Without Borders have won its inaugural Literary Magazine Prizes. Read more about the awards in this online exclusive by Nadia Q. Ahmad.

Pop-up libraries are appearing on beach resorts from Belgium to Peru, making it easier than ever to find the perfect summer beach read. (AJC)

Articles at the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and PBS NewsHour pay tribute to poet Donald Hall, who died Saturday at age eighty-nine.

“A big part of me would be very proud never having anything of mine adapted, because if you want the real experience, there’s only one way to get it. You’re going to actually have to be a reader.” The New York Times profiles Jonathan Franzen.

Scottish rapper Loki (Darren McGarvey) has won the 2018 Orwell Prize for his first book, Poverty Safari: Understanding the Anger of Britain’s Underclass. The annual £3,000 prize is given for a book of political writing. (BBC News)

Best-selling British writers Philip Pullman, Antony Beevor, and Sally Gardner are calling on publishers to pay their authors better, after a report from the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society showed median earnings for professional writers had fallen 42 percent since 2005 to under £10,500 per year. (Guardian)

“This narrative obscures the realities of women’s lives, downplays the costs of rebellion, and consigns whole communities to obscurity for lacking the spirit to rebel.” Joanna Scutts considers the recent influx of historical books that celebrate rebellious women, and who gets left out of these narratives. (Slate)