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:

Celebrated Irish poet Seamus Heaney, who won the 1995 Nobel Prize for Literature, passes away [2] in Dublin.  (New York Times)

Flavorwire takes a journey through publishing history with the article, “Completion Is Perfection: 75 Vintage Dust Jackets of Classic Books [3].”

Writer and co-founder of Second Skin, Nathaniel Kressen, discusses [4] the importance of editing and the difference between self-publishing and independent publishing. (Rumpus)

Anna Szymanski explains why she stopped reading books written by men in this essay [5] from the Huffington Post.

This article [6] in the New Yorker explores how listicles are replacing traditional articles and journalistic pieces in the digital age.

Writer Sarah Gerard assesses the benefits and challenges of writing in a notebook in this essay [7] in the Paris Review.

President Barack Obama writes a letter [8] to the New England Independent Booksellers Association to defend his visit to an Amazon warehouse.