Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—publishing reports, literary dispatches, academic announcements, and more—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today’s stories.
The winners and finalists for this year’s Pulitzer Prizes were revealed on Friday. The literary honorees included Louise Erdrich, who won the fiction prize for The Night Watchman; Natalie Diaz, who received the poetry prize for Postcolonial Love Poem; and Les Payne and Tamara Payne, who earned the biography prize for The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X. (New York Times)
The New Yorker Union has announced it is prepared to go on strike if the magazine’s parent company, Condé Nast, continues to ignore its demands, including appeals for fair pay and more reasonable health insurance costs. Union members have prepared a special “Strike Issue” of New Yorker–style content, which will be released in the event of a strike and boycott. (Literary Hub)
The Yeats Society in Sligo, Ireland, has announced it is in urgent need of funds if it is to remain open. “The pandemic hit us hard and we lost all our revenues in 2020 and will do so again in 2021,” said director Susan O’Keefe. The organization has launched an online fund-raiser with the goal to raise €100,000. (Bookseller)
Publishers Weekly speaks with the owners of A Room of One’s Own, a new and used bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin, about their business model and pending relocation within the city. “We can be more of a neighborhood bookstore there, while continuing to be the activist, rabble-rousing, mission-driven bookstore we’ve become,” says co-owner Gretchen Treu.
“Blood isn’t always who our closest family is, not when you’re queer and you have the freedom to make up your own household.” Kristen Arnett discusses exploring queer motherhood in her latest novel, With Teeth. (Electric Literature)
“I am not alone, I thought, reaching for cabbage off the shelf of the food co-op while the state of the world looked more and more uncertain. All of my ancestors felt near to me then.” Chef and writer Elizabeth Gollan reconnected with her ancestors’ staple foods during the pandemic. (Catapult)
Meanwhile, Valerie Stivers prepares pies inspired by the works of Trinidadian writer C. L. R. James. “I wanted to know what these women he writes about were actually cooking. I called a Trinidadian bakery for advice and referred to several food blogs, learning about meat pies and tarts filled with guava jam.” (Paris Review Daily)
