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.
For National Novel Writing Month, writer and editor Amy Brady asked Twitter for advice for novice writers. At the Chicago Review of Books, she compiles responses from authors and editors representing a broad swath of the industry.
In a conversation at the Rumpus, Katharine Coldiron discusses her forthcoming lyric novel, Ceremonials, and remixing ideas from various artists and art forms, including film, books, and music.
The New York Times visits Montclair Book Center in New Jersey. “A ramshackle throwback to a funkier, more literary time, the store has shelves handmade from raw lumber. And its customers and clerks are often just as eccentric as the shelves.”
Ross Kenneth Urken discusses his memoir, Another Mother, in which he explores the story of his beloved Jamaican nanny, Dezna Sanderson. He remembers their intimacy, while also discovering complex silences: “With my knowledge of all she went through, I am moved by the pains she took to shield me from the struggles of her life and by the love she imbued in her every action.” (Los Angeles Review of Books)
Ilka Tampke reflects on having won the Australian Booksellers Association’s Most Underrated Book Award, and what it feels like when your book is “not quite setting the world on fire.” (Guardian)
At Electric Lit, Bangladeshi American writer Nadeem Zaman discusses returning to his childhood home, Dhaka, to finish and publish his writing.
Publishers Weekly checked in with leaders at six literary organizations that support Black writers, including Amanda Johnston of Cave Canem and Kesha Lee of the Hurston/Wright Foundation.
Literary Hub consulted with book designers to select the seventy-eight best book covers of 2019. The cover of Yoko Ogawa’s The Memory Police designed by Tyler Comrie topped the list.
