Amazon's Jab at Apple, Pushkin Remembrance Day, and More

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:

Amazon takes a jab at Apple's iPad in a new advertisement for its Kindle e-readers. The Los Angeles Times reminds readers the two Kindles represented in the ad cost Amazon more to manufacture than their purchase price.

GalleyCat reports that Fox passed on the television pilot adaptation of Lev Grossman's The Magicians. Although there's still hope the project will go forward. On his website, Grossman writes, "We’re going to take the script to cable networks. We’re also going to renew talks on the feature-film side."

Meanwhile, the production company Legendary Pictures has canceled plans to adapt John Milton's seventeenth-century epic poem, Paradise Lost, which was to star Bradley Cooper as Lucifer. (Hollywood Reporter)

From the department of odd things found on the Internet come the Composites, a Tumblr created by multimedia artist Brian Joseph Davis, which uses law enforcement composite sketch software to create images of literary characters, such as Tom Ripley from Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Charlotte Brontë's Mr. Rochester, from Jane Eyre.

N+1 examines the history, appeal, and common disdain of listening to audio books.

Speaking of listening, the Contextual Life highlights a favorite book-related podcast, Bookrageous.

Today is Pushkin Remembrance Day across Russia. One hundred and seventy-five years ago, the celebrated poet Aleksandr Pushkin died from wounds inflicted in a duel with his brother-in-law, French military officer Georges d'Anthes. (RT)

Digital Book World examines what it's like working in publishing, and the competitive nature of landing a job with one of the "big six" publishing houses.