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:

"The average advance these days, for a genre fiction novel, ranges between $2,500 and $10,000 [2]." GalleyCat casts a sober eye on economics for genre authors.

Duotrope reports its switch [3] to a subscription-based business has succeeded. (Write, Juggle, Run)

Author and professor of neurology Oliver Sacks explores memory [4] for the New York Review of Books.

In light of the publication of Virginia Woolf's cottage loaf recipe this past week, the Guardian considers other "great literary cooks. [5]"

Meanwhile, author and critic Melanie Rehak looks at chef and Baohaus owner Eddie Huang [6]'s new memoir Fresh Off the Boat. (Bookforum)

Bel Canto author Ann Patchett and her Nashville bookstore [7] were featured on Super Soul Sunday, a show on OWN—Patchett explains that the idea that books and bookstores are dead is fiction. (Huffington Post)

And with Super Bowl Sunday this weekend, Paris Review Daily discusses gridiron poetics [8]: "Flea flicker. Wildcat. Touchback. Checkdown."

Today is the anniversary of Muriel Spark's birth [9]—the author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, who died in 2006, was born on this day in 1918. (Open Road Media)