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:

Activist punk band, Pussy Riot, has been sentenced to prison by Russian authorities, charged with “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” Literary magazine n+1 has published translations of their closing statements [2].

Meanwhile, social activists in Oakland have converted an abandoned building into a free library [3]. (GalleyCat)

Laura Miller weighs in on the state of literary criticism, answering recent essays by Jacob Silverman in Slate, and Dwight Garner [4] in the New York Times Magazine. Miller writes their "laments over the (highly debatable) scarcity of negative book reviews is at heart nostalgic. [5]" (Salon)

Molasses Books, a recently opened store in Brooklyn, New York, offers a barter service [6]. Its customers can trade books for coffee, other books, and eventually, beer and wine. (Co.Exist.)

BuzzFeed rounded up thirty writing tips from acclaimed authors [7], including Elmore Leonard, Toni Morrison, and Edgar Allan Poe.

And Stylist selected its fifty favorite literary insults [8], including Shakespeare's, "Go shake your ears."

St. Mark's Bookshop in New York City successfully raised enough funds [9] to enable it to set up shop in a smaller and less expensive location. (DNAInfo)

The New York Times examines the growing enterprise of self-publishing [10].