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:

With Selected Letters of William Styron out now, critic James Wolcott considers the life and work of the author of Sophie's Choice [2]. (London Review of Books)

"A popular American belief holds that the act of writing can somehow save the writer. But having written a couple of books and countless essays, I disagree." Poet Roya Hakakian details the personal importance of the work of Iranian poet Firoozeh Papan-Matin [3]. (NPR)

Guy Kawasaki offers ten strategies for publishers to succeed [4] in the future. (Publishing Perspectives)

The nominees were announced—including Carolyn Parkhurst, Tayari Jones, and Julia Fierro [5], among others—for the Above and Beyond Award [6] at Beyond the Margins.

A Books-a-Million is scheduled to close [7] in Charleston, South Carolina. (Post and Courier)

A new multimedia App called Paragraph Shorts [8] features both classic and new short fiction paired with independent music.

Author Richard Skinner's blog features W. G. Sebald's writing tips [9]: "Writing is about discovering things hitherto unseen. Otherwise there’s no point to the process."