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:
If you're searching for a historic figure to write about, the Wall Street Journal suggests Abraham Lincoln is a safe bet.
A New York-based technology company intends to create a Spotify-like service for books. (Independent)
Author and Grove/Atlantic staffer Jason Pinter parses Lena Dunham's 3.7 million dollar book deal—using math. (Huffington Post)
Roxane Gay details her fall reading list, including The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, by Ayana Mathis, and Scott Hutchins’s A Working Theory of Love. (Rumpus)
David Letterman's production company Worldwide Pants has purchased film rights to Nervous Breakdown executive editor Jonathan Evison's The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, which Algonquin published in August. (Hollywood Reporter)
In other film news, Michelle Williams is slated to star in a screen adaptation of Irène Némirovsky's Suite Française. (Guardian)
Author Catherine Chung reveals what it was like to be named one of five "Brooklyn writers to look out for," although she didn’t live in Brooklyn. (New York Times)
David Varela discusses his plans to stay in the house where poet Ted Hughes once lived, and write for one hundred hours, while taking writing requests from the public to raise money for literacy. (Literary Platform)
Alexander Chee lists twenty-one lies writers tell themselves, including, "I’m almost done." (Awl)
