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:
Kindle Unlimited has officially launched today after message-board discussions by Kindle users leaked word of Amazon’s e-book subscription service to the public. The service allows access to 600,000 e-books and more than 2,000 audiobooks for $9.99 per month. (Time, GalleyCat)
E-book sales in the United States increased by 5.1 percent during the first financial quarter of this year according to statistics reported by the Association of American Publishers. (Digital Book World)
Following the controversy that erupted when Governor Pat McCrory named self-published poet Valerie Macon as North Carolina’s new poet laureate without consulting the state’s Arts Council, Macon has resigned from the post. (News & Observer)
Giovanni’s Room, the oldest LGBT bookstore in the country, located in Philadelphia, has found a buyer, according to the store’s owner and cofounder Ed Hermance. After Hermance announced late last year that he would close the store in January, he was convinced by the community to keep its doors open until mid-May, when the store was shuttered. Current plans—yet to be finalized—involve the as-yet-unnamed new owner taking over the lease on the property as of August 1. (Publishers Weekly)
Meanwhile, Singapore’s National Library Board has announced that two of three children’s book titles earlier ordered by the government to be pulled from libraries and pulped will be returned to library shelves. While copies of Who’s In My Family?: All About Our Families have already been destroyed, And Tango Makes Three and The White Swan Express: A Story About Adoption will be made available following protests across the country, where homosexual sex is a criminal offense but rarely enforced. (Time, ABC News)
The United States Supreme Court dismissed a petition brought by the heirs of Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle against mystery writer Leslie S. Klinger, who uses Doyle’s characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson in a forthcoming book. (Telegraph)
Louisville poet Jeffrey Skinner is at work on a poetry collection inspired by particle physics and a visit to the European Organization for Nuclear Research. (Courier-Journal)
Journalist Stassa Edwards argues against using the term “oversharing” when reviewing books by female writers. (Salon)
