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 trailer for the long-awaited film adaptation of Lois Lowry’s classic young-adult novel, The Giver [2], has been released by the Weinstein Company and features a star-studded cast. (Time)

Meg Wolitzer will try her hand at young adult fiction [3] with her new novel, Belzhar, which takes Sylvia Plath as its inspiration, forthcoming from Dutton in September. (NPR)

After Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, dropped its publishing deal earlier this month with John Lefevre, author of Straight to Hell: True Tales of Deviance, Debauchery, and Billion-Dollar Deals, Grove Atlantic has agreed to publish the popular Twitter-user’s book [4] inspired by supposed experiences working for Goldman Sachs. (GalleyCat)

The Washington Post argues that books are fighting a losing battle [5] and suggests that Boston-based start-up Spritz, which improves reading speed, could help.

A set list of poet Richard Blanco’s recent reading at the Aspen Writers’ Foundation [6], complete with links to the full text of poems, is available at the Huffington Post.  

Liz Wood reflects on Joyce Carol Oates’s recent reading [7] at New York University’s Lillian Vernon Creative Writing House. (Electric Literature)

Novelists Pankaj Mishra and Daniel Mendelsohn discuss Harold Bloom’s 1994 book The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages [8], and ask whether this work of literary criticism would have the same reception in today’s market. (New York Times)

The Guardian considers readers’ devotion to underrated books [9], while the Irish Independent lists five writers of bestsellers [10] who toil in relative obscurity.

Britain’s Canal & River Trust has named Jo Bell the country’s first poet laureate of canals and waterways [11]. (Independent)