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 has finally come to its own defense in an article in the Wall Street Journal [2], available to online subscribers. The Internet retailer’s senior vice president of Kindle content, Russ Grandinetti, explains that the ongoing battle [3] between Amazon and Hachette has to do with profits over e-books and that Amazon’s stance is “in the long-term interest of our customers.” (Business Insider)    

After three years sponsoring World Book Night in the United States on April 23, the organization has announced it will suspend operations [4] after failing to find funding for the charitable event. (Bookseller)

John Freeman, a former president of the National Book Critics Circle and previously the editor of Granta, will edit a new biannual series of anthologies [5] through a partnership with Grove/Atlantic and the New School. Called Freeman’s, the anthologies will feature original fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and photography organized around a theme and will privilege long-form writing. (Washington Post)

Schuler Books, a chain of independent booksellers based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has purchased Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor, Michigan [6], following the announcement of owner Nicola Rooney’s retirement. (Publishers Weekly)

The New York Public Library will begin lending Wi-Fi devices to low-income patrons [7] enrolled in the library’s adult-education and after-school programs. (New York Post)

London newspaper the Guardian has selected its second winner, Jude Starling’s The Right of the Subjects [8], for the Guardian Legend Self-Published Book of the Month, a new award for independent authors based in the United Kingdom. See our exclusive online interview [9] with the Guardian’s literary editor Claire Armitstead about the new award.

Authors Pankaj Mishra and Francine Prose consider the category of “immigrant fiction,” [10] and examine whether such classification helps or hurts writers and their work. (New York Times)

After shows in San Francisco and Sydney, Neil Gaiman’s performance of music, art, and storytelling [11] based on his illustrated short novel The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains, will next take the stage in Edinburgh. (Skinny)