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:
On the occasion of the news from President Obama that Osama bin Laden is dead, ArtsBeat [2] gathered a list of useful books about Al Qaeda and its former leader.
Two days after Harper Lee released a statement through her lawyer denying any involvement in the forthcoming book about her life by a former Chicago Tribune reporter, the former reporter's publisher, Penguin, insisted that the project had the cooperation of Ms. Lee and even has a signed letter from Lee's sister affirming their cooperation with the book. (New York Times [3])
The winners of this year's translated book awards were announced by Three Percent [4] at the PEN World Voices Festival this weekend, with Aleš Šteger’s The Book of Things, translated from the Slovenian by Brian Henry, winning the poetry honor, and Thomas Teal’s translation from the Swedish of Tove Jansson’s The True Deceiver picking up the fiction prize.
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books was held this past weekend, and Jacket Copy [5] has a series of dispatches from the event.
Blurb has created a multimedia story-telling app for the iPhone. TUAW [6]has the details.
A high school English teacher who moonlights as a romance novelist has found herself in the middle of a controversy after parents insist she has to choose between her two careers. One supporter, who came to her defense, said, "She's one of the best teachers in the district in my opinion and she has been writing for 20-something years. I don't see why its an issue now." (Huffington Post [7])
Al Gore has developed an e-book app with some remarkable interactive multimedia features. You can check out a video demonstration with the former vice president on Vimeo [8].
As Mother's Day approaches, here are five book gift ideas for moms from USA Today [9].