My confusion came from a curious warning. Awash in a sea of writers and would-be writers in a drab-walled meeting room at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference a few years ago in Vancouver, B.C., I was listening to author Dinty W. Moore extol the virtues of creative nonfiction writing when suddenly he straightened his stout body and leaned across the podium. "Look out," he cautioned, his tone dire, "the journalists are coming!"

The Twitter user claiming to be Maya Angelou has come clean as an impostor.

Richard Nash announced yesterday that he will be stepping down as editorial director of Soft Skull Press and executive editor of Counterpoint on March 10. In a press release, Counterpoint publisher Charlie Winton, who bought the financially struggling Soft Skull about eighteen months ago, indicated that the company will continue to publish the Soft Skull imprint as well as maintain its editorial office in New York City.

After bowing out of the Emirates Airline International Festival of Literature, author Margaret Atwood announced last Friday that she will be appearing at the event, via video.

Harper Perennial announced last Wednesday that it will offer a free short story every week throughout 2009. Each Sunday night the HarperCollins imprint will post a new short story on the blog Fifty-Two Stories. Eight stories, including "Wish Fulfillment" by Mary Gaitskill, "Burn Me Up" by Tom Piazza, and "Beauty Stolen From Another World" by Louise Erdrich, have already been published.

The independent production company Werc Werk Works announced last Thursday that it has signed on to finance a feature film about the creation of and controversy surrounding Allen Ginsberg’s long poem "Howl."

A petition drafted by PEN American Center calling for the release of Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo, who was arrested by Chinese authorities on December 8, has received over a thousand signatures, and the organization is continuing to seek supporters.

The New Yorker on Tuesday announced the creation of a book club, or, as the editors prefer to think of it, a "readers’ cooperative—a standing invitation to roll up your sleeves and dig deep into a book, and see what together we uncover."