Haki R. Madhubuti on Black Lit, PEN World Voices Festival, and More
George Washington’s hair found in library book; the importance of rereading; in praise of queer teen fiction; and other news.
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Genre: Not Genre-Specific
How Books Get Shipped
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Annette Danek, senior vice president of fulfillment at Penguin Random House, narrates a 360-degree tour of the distribution warehouse in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where twenty-five trailers of books arrive from printers daily. Each day, over one million books are then processed, picked, packaged, and prepared for shipment to independent bookstores and readers.
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John Giorno and William Burroughs’s Bunker
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Poet and painter John Giorno gives a tour of his home on the Bowery in New York City and points out William Burroughs’s former bunker bedroom, kept intact with his bed, typewriters, and a bull’s-eye target. The building was a frequent hangout of artists including Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Mark Rothko, and Robert Rauschenberg.
Fred Bass Remembered
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At a public memorial at New York City’s Strand Book Store, family members, colleagues, and writers including Gay Talese, Fran Lebowitz, and Paul Krugman remember and honor Fred Bass, the bookstore’s longtime owner who died at the age of eighty-nine on January 3. The bookstore was founded by Bass’s father in 1927, and he began working there at the age of thirteen, taking over its management in 1956.
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Garbage Collectors Start Library in Turkey, PEN America Award Finalists, and More
An English translation of Saddam Hussein’s romance novel; Krys Lee and Adam Johnson on North Korea; an ultra-realistic animation of poet Robert Burns; and other news.
ROOSTERGNN Artist Residency
ROOSTERGNN Global News Network (RGNN) offers residencies of at least ten days to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers year-round in Madrid, Spain, and during the summer in Havana and Trinidad, Cuba. Residents in Spain will be provided with lodging in private apartments in central Madrid; residents in Cuba will be provided with lodging with a Cuban host family. The cost to attend the residency is €950 to €1,200. Need-based scholarships of €100 are available. Submit a writing sample of any length, a project proposal, and a résumé or curriculum vitae.
Type:
RESIDENCY
Ignore Event Date Field?:
yes
Event Date:
September 19, 2025
Rolling Admissions:
yes
Application Deadline:
September 19, 2025
Financial Aid?:
no
Financial Aid Application Deadline:
September 19, 2025
Free Admission:
no
Contact Information:
ROOSTERGNN Artist Residency, Calle Juan Bravo 58-60 Madrid, Spain.
Contact City:
Madrid, Spain, and Havana and Trinidad
Country:
CU
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Philip Roth on Life as a Retired Writer, Kaveh Akbar’s Poetic Gratitude, and More
Margaret Atwood faces backlash for controversial piece on the #MeToo movement; Ocean Vuong wins T. S. Eliot Award; twelve noteworthy Spanish-language women writers; and other news.
Karl Ove Knausgaard Answers the Proust Questionnaire
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“I don’t have any heroes in fiction but I have been influenced by fictional heroes many, many times.” In this video, Karl Ove Knausgaard responds to the Proust Questionnaire for the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona’s Kosmopolis Continuous Programme series. His most recent novel, Winter (Penguin Press, 2018), translated from the Norwegian by Ingvild Burkey, is featured in Page One in the January/February 2018 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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PEN Announces Award Longlists, Authors Entering the Public Domain, and More
Last-minute book gifts; HarperCollins to publish Zora Neale Hurston’s interviews with the last survivor of the slave trade; Paul Muldoon awarded 2017 Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry; and other news.
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The Backward Index
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Peter Sokolowski, editor-at-large of Merriam-Webster, explains why there is a special set of shelves in the basement of their offices filled with 315,000 words spelled backwards and catalogued. A Q&A with Sokolowski is featured in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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