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:

“I felt from an early age that poetry was something mysterious, something playful and lilting. As I got older, poems began to offer me new and life-changing ways of looking at the familiar world.” In the latest installment of By the Book, poet Tracy K. Smith talks about when she became interested in poetry [2], what she reads to her kids, and what she’s reading next. (New York Times)

Saxophonist Benjamin Boone has released The Poetry of Jazz, a recording of the late Philip Levine reading his poetry alongside jazz musicians [3] including Boone himself, trumpeter Tom Harrell, and saxophonists Chris Potter, Greg Osby, and Branford Marsalis. Levine recorded the sessions a few years before his death in 2015. (NPR)

Last spring, 314 books—estimated to be worth $5 million in total—were stolen from the rare book collection of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh [4]. In hopes of aiding the police investigation, the library has released a list of the stolen titles, which include first editions of Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica and Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

U.K. anti-racist group Hope Not Hate has published an investigation [5] of booksellers—including Amazon, Waterstones, Foyles, and WHSmith—that sell anti-Semitic books. The group has called on the booksellers to remove the titles from their shelves [6]. (Guardian)

In response to Kentucky governor Matt Blevin’s state budget proposal, which would force the University Press of Kentucky to close [7], the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association and the Midwest Independent Booksellers have issued a joint statement voicing their support for the press. (Publishers Weekly)

“Twin Peaks forever rewired the circuitry of the apparatus I use to scan and interpret American life.” Michael Chabon on the truths and dreams in filmmaker David Lynch’s work [8]. (Paris Review)

Listen to Chabon discuss the writing process and his most recent novel, Moonglow, in episode 10 of Ampersand: The Poets & Writers Podcast [9].

Parul Sehgal considers the Bhagavad Gita—the “most enigmatic of religious texts, a masterpiece of moral ambiguity [10]” loved by everyone from Simone Weil to Steve Bannon—and a new translation of the Hindu scripture by radiologist and writer Amit Majmudar. (New York Times)

“Esther the Wonder Pig,” “Goats of Anarchy,” and “Fiona the Hippo”: Publishers Weekly surveys the real-life animals making a splash in the world of children’s picture books [11].