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:

Two prominent law professors claim the tax arrangements made between online giant Amazon [2] and the states of South Carolina and Tennessee are a violation of the Constitution’s commerce clause. (Forbes)

Art Works, the blog of the National Endowment of the Arts, interviewed its new director of literature Ira Silverberg [3]. Yesterday marked the former editor, publisher, and agent's first day in his new position.

The New York Times details the international financing behind one of the most anticipated literary adaptations [4] of the decade, the film version of David Mitchell's third novel Cloud Atlas. The process began when Natalie Portman gave a copy of the novel to Lana Wachowski on the set of V for Vendetta.

A new blog has been created to showcase journalistic pride [5]. "We are tired of bad press about the press…. We are terrified of more layoffs and pay cuts. We would like to produce quality work without ‘obamasux99' posting some non-sequitur rant at the end of it." (GalleyCat)

The release of Michael Chabon's new novel, Telegraph Avenue, was confirmed for Fall 2012 via Twitter [6]. (Huffington Post)

The Millions lists several holiday gifts for the writers [7] in your life that they'll actually use.

A possible Jane Austen portrait has been discovered [8], which would increase the number of known portraits of the British novelist to three. (BBC News)

Almost fifty years ago, a young student wrote prominent authors a set of literary questions, including Jack Kerouac and Norman Mailer. Several responses are posted online, and the Atlantic Wire reports "Ayn Rand was meaner than you think [9]."

InDigest has launched its Poem of the Day Podcast. Now on its second day, it features Rachel Zucker reading “Please Alice Notley Tell Me How to be Old [10].”