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:

“Amazon is a global superstore, like Walmart. [2]” George Packer casts a gimlet eye on Jeff Bezos’s online giant. (New Yorker)

Meanwhile, Amazon’s editorial director Sara Nelson offers a bevy of love stories for Valentine’s Day [3]. (GalleyCat)

Barnes & Noble fired an unspecified number of engineers working in its Nook division [4] last week. When this news arrived on Wall Street, the bookstore chain’s stock rose. (Shelf Awareness)

Open Road will acquire digital publisher E-Reads [5]. Founded by Richard Curtis in 1999, E-Reads has published over twelve hundred titles. (Publishers Weekly)

Eric Bennett details his time at the venerable Iowa Writers’ Workshop [6], and explains how the CIA indirectly funded the program. (Chronicle Review)

Jason Diamond showcases how Joyce Carol Oates engages with Twitter [7]. (Flavorwire)

Milan Kundera [8], author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, will publish a new book in 2015. (NPR)