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For thousands of would-be novelists, November is NaNoWriMo; the New York Observer is getting a new editor; McSweeney’s is giving readers a taste of its long-awaited newspaper project; the Espresso Book Machine is gaining ground; a new study looks at how U.S. publishers are treating their employees; and other news.
LA’s inkSlam Poetry Festival is underway; the glut of Penguin merchandise has some concerned that the publisher is forgetting its radical roots; U.K. publishers are urging government action against digital piracy; zombie literature refuses to die; and other news.
The Internet Archive is offering libraries a legal scanning solution for copyright “orphans”; Hyperion has a new editor in chief; San Diego is pressing ahead with its long-delayed central library plans; a new Web site is testing the profitability of poetry; this spring’s Beirut39 festival will spotlight up-and-coming Arab authors; and other news.
Canadian publishers are receiving notice this week about federal grant allotments; Shipping News author E. Annie Proulx has donated her papers to the NYPL; writers, musicians, and booksellers in NYC are gathering to mark Indie Bookstore Week; Madrid will host Spain’s first e-book fair this month; and other news.
Nearly two thousand publishers are heading to Mexico this month for what organizers say is the world’s largest Spanish-language book fair; a prequel is in the works for the late Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot novels; Scholastic has pulled a title from its elementary school book fairs after the author refused to rewrite a same-sex couple as heterosexual; and other news.
In this excerpted version of his article from the November/December 2009 issue, contributor Seth Abramson reveals the methodology behind his ranking of the top fifty MFA programs in the United States, plus a ranking of the additional eighty-eight full-residency programs. For the full article and additional data for each program, including size, duration, cost of living, teaching load, and curriculum focus, see the November/December 2009 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
For seventy-five years Louisiana State University, in Baton Rouge, has been home to two of the country's most storied literary institutions, LSU Press and the Southern Review. But prestige was not enough to save either one from a 20 percent cut in university subsidy in July.
Author Carleen Brice recommends titles in honor of National Buy a Book by a Black Author and Give It to Somebody Not Black Month, the book-buying campaign she launched last year to heighten awareness of black authors who aren't as famous as Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Colson Whitehead.
She Writes, a Web site established for women writers, has joined the ranks of literary social networking utilities. Launched in June it aims to provide a place "where women writers working in every genre, in every part of the world, and of all ages and backgrounds, can come together in a space of mutual support."
As the editor in chief of Twelve, Jonathan Karp is always looking for good writing. Considering that half of all the books he’s published there have become best-sellers, that should make a lot of writers very, very excited.
