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:

“Each day became an exercise in magical thinking: If I could face the worst of my fears on the page, maybe I’d be spared in real life. I didn’t want to write the story, but how could I not?” Richard Russo describes writing his 2001 novel about a school shooting, Empire Falls, and wonders what it would be like to write a similar novel now [2]. (New York Times)

Michael Groover, husband to celebrity chef Paula Deen, has won this year’s Ernest Hemingway Look-Alike Contest [3], which was held over the weekend in Key West, Florida. (NBC Miami)

An economist stirred controversy by suggesting in a recent Forbes article that Amazon should replace all local libraries [4]. Librarians responded on social media [5], calling the article “twaddle” and pointing out the many educational and financial contributions libraries make to their communities. (Guardian)

Writer and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates has left his position as a national correspondent for the Atlantic [6]. Coates has not signed on to a competing publication and is leaving “to take time to reflect on the [significant changes of the last few years], and to figure out the best path forward, both as a person and as a writer,” says Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg. (Washington Post)

“They made blueprints of a better place, detailed right down to the wallpaper, and a pleasing aura of pious intent rises from these pages.” Adam Gopnik considers the utopias imagined by four nineteenth-century authors [7]. (New Yorker)

The Vulture follows Michiko Kakutani around New York City for an evening [8] and interviews the critic about her Instagram account, Keith Richards, and her new book, The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump.

Meanwhile, Publishers Weekly takes a look at the many book deals made by former Trump staffers [9].

The New York Times visits Kitchen Arts and Letters, a shop in New York City devoted to books about food [10], whose owners “might be the most quietly influential figures in American cuisine.”