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:
As the Borders saga meanders to a close, Najafi Companies has pulled out of negotiations to rescue the bookstore chain and liquidators are circling [2]. Meanwhile, there's hope pop-up bookstores [3] may fill the newly empty spaces.
Books, Inc., an independently owned mini-chain with thirteen locations in Northern California, is celebrating a venerable birthday. Surviving war, earthquake, fire, and economic crises, the one-hundred-sixty-year-old store was founded in 1851 by Anton Roman, a successful player in the California Gold Rush, who traded his gold for books and opened a bookshop in Shasta City and later moved it to San Francisco. (Bookselling This Week [4].)
This week marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Belletrist Literary Club, which comprises a group of Utah women who meet monthly to discuss books and share a meal. Over six hundred books have been discussed during its lifespan. (Herald Journal [5]via Shelf Awareness)
Pages from Jane Austen's unfinished manuscript, "The Watsons [6]"—which had originally been expected to fetch over three hundred thousand dollars at auction—sold for $1.6 million [7]. The buyer was anonymous, and despite the Los Angeles Times [8] hope that it was actor Colin Firth, it was revealed today that the new owner is the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
The New York Times [9] explores Amazon's decision-making process regarding the Android tablet that—once its finally released—will be positioned as a contender with the iPad.
Google's integrated answer to Facebook, Google+, has been building up its user base at a dizzying rate, and today, GalleyCat [10] offers some help for writers and publishing professionals who'd like to take advantage of its functions.
A used-car dealer in Mohegan Lake, New York, is spicing up his classified ads using the tools of fiction. (Ad Week [11])
On the occasion of the U.S. release of the film adaptation of French-American author Tatiana de Rosnay's novel Sarah's Key—which focuses on the 1942 Vélodrome d'Hiver roundup of ten thousand Jews during the Holocaust—the Wall Street Journal takes a look at the book's long journey to finding a publisher. (Wall Street Journal [12])
Spoiler Alert: In case you find yourself with tickets to the latest (and supposedly last) Harry Potter adaptation, and have no clue what's happened in the series up to now, Time [13] offers an abbreviated version of the first seven films.