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:

Author Allan Gurganus writes of first meeting his teacher and friend John Cheever [2], who would be one hundred years old this year. (New York Review of Books)

David Carr profiles millionaire magazine publisher Felix Dennis, who is also a best-selling poet [3]. Carr reports Dennis's "latest project is a room-size rock weighing thirty tons inscribed with one of his poems." (New York Times)

Speaking of best-selling poetry, Harriet lists last week's contemporary top sellers [4], led by Mary Oliver’s A Thousand Mornings.

The Guardian reports Amazon is forcing publishers in the United Kingdom to pay [5] a 20 percent value added tax (VAT) charge on all e-book purchases.

Amanda Katz has more on Amazon's new Author Rank [6]. (NPR)

Author Jeremy Duns details the spurious work of Harriet Klausner, who has reviewed over twenty-eight thousand books on Amazon [7]. (More Intelligent Life)

Brain Pickings features musician Christine Tobin's new album based on the poems of W. B. Yeats [8].

Boris Kachka visits with legendary author Tom Wolfe [9] at his New York City apartment to discuss Wolfe's new novel, Back to Blood. (Vulture)

"Poetry is different from fiction. Poetry is not a lie that tells the truth. A poem must burn with a truth-seeking flame and be a little symphony of language, too. [10]" Henri Cole delivers his second dispatch from Paris for the New Yorker.

Actor Andy Serkis will direct and perform in an adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm [11]. (GalleyCat)