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:
Members of the Disabled & Deaf Uprising, an anonymous collective of writers with disabilities, have published a collective letter revealing unfair treatment and discouragement they received from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) at its annual conference. (VIDA: Women in Literary Arts)
Speaking of AWP, following the recent firing of executive director David Fenza, a group of former AWP board members have circulated a petition calling on the current board to disclose the reasons for Fenza’s removal, and to provide him with a severance package. The board has so far remained silent on Fenza’s termination.
In an interview with Jacqueline Woodson, Emmy-winning writer and actress Lena Waithe discusses her journey and successes as a queer woman of color in Hollywood. “Can’t no one tell a black story, particularly a queer story, the way I can, because I see the God in us. James Baldwin saw the God in us. Zora saw the God in us. When I’m looking for myself, I find myself in the pages of Baldwin.” (Vanity Fair)
“Lyricism is a part of the age of youth. When you’re a youth, you’re lyric. Later on, you become tragic.” Just before his ninety-ninth birthday, Beat poet and City Lights Bookstore founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti looks back on his long literary life. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Read Julia Older’s interview with Ferlinghetti, “Poetry’s Eternal Graffiti,” from the March/April 2007 issue.
Angie Thomas’s debut young adult novel, The Hate U Give, which was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, has won the 2018 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. (Guardian)
Literary publicist Lauren Cerand has joined the staff of A Public Space as its new marketing and development director.
For more about Cerand and book publicists, read Tess Taylor’s article “The Art of Publicity: How Indie Publicists Work With Writers” in the current issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Last night a New York City firefighter died fighting a blaze that ignited on the set of Motherless Brooklyn, a film adaptation of the novel by Jonathan Lethem. (ABC News)
