U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins Reads 9/11 Poem to Congress
Billy Collins, who is serving his second one-year term as U.S. poet laureate, read a poem during a special session of Congress held in New York City on Friday, September 6.
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Linguaphiles Unite
A Word A Day: A Romp Through Some of the Most Unusual and Intriguing Words in English—a collection of 273 unusual, obscure, and exotic words inspired by Anu Garg's linguistic e-mail service, A.Word.A.Day—will be published by John Wiley & Sons in October.
When Literature Goes Hollywood
Three new films based on books of fiction are scheduled to be released in October: Ethan Canin's The Palace Thief, Michael Cunningham's The Hours (which features an all-star cast including Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Claire Danes, and Ed Harris), and Janet Fitch's White Oleander.
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Black Sparrow Folds Its Wings
Black Sparrow Press, based in Santa Rosa, California, began in 1966 as a vehicle for John Martin to publish the work that he loved, but went on to become a financial success. It published more than 650 titles, with annual sales eventually rising to more than $1 million, which is why it came as a surprise to many in the publishing industry when Black Sparrow went out of business last spring.
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Anthologies Mark Year of Reflection
Over three hundred poems, short stories, and essays written in response to the events of last September have been collected in three new anthologies: September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond, Poetry After 9/11: An Anthology of New York Poets, and 110 Stories: New York Writes After September 11.
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Literary MagNet
Literary MagNet chronicles the start-ups and closures, successes and failures, anniversaries and accolades, changes of editorship and special issues—in short, the news and trends—of literary magazines in America. This issue's MagNet features One Story, Chicago Review, Boston Review, Agni, Ploughshares, Poetry, Blackbird, and Creative Nonfiction.
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The BBC's Really Big Book Club
The BBC World Service recently launched what could be the world's largest book club. Each month a new book of fiction will be selected, and a live discussion, led by Harriett Gilbert, will be broadcast to the BBC's radio audience of 150 million listeners on six continents.
Zadie Smith, Will Self, Yann Martel Among Booker Prize Nominees
The nominees for the 2002 Man Booker Prize were recently announced. The annual prize is given for the best novel published in the current year and is open to writers from the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the British Commonwealth.
Flood Relief Fund for Libraries: Postcard From Prague
Witnesses looked on in anguish as the murky flood waters of the Vltava River surged over Prague, one of the world’s greatest literary cities-home of Kafka, Kundera, Hrabal, and Havel.
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Sharon Olds at the Workshop: Postcard From Paris
The 16th annual Paris Writers Workshop wrapped up on July 5 after a week-long schedule of workshops, lectures, readings, and walking tours.
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