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:
National Book Award–winning author and veteran Phil Klay responds to Donald Trump’s recent comments about veterans and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and why the language Trump used should be avoided. (Esquire)
“As for madness…hell! Most poets are mad. It doesn’t qualify us for anything. Madness is a waste of time. It creates nothing.” Read a selection of Anne Sexton’s correspondence with an aspiring poet and fan at the Paris Review. Sexton died forty-two years ago yesterday.
The American Writers Museum—scheduled to open March 2017 in Chicago—has appointed its inaugural president, Carey Cranston. Cranston is the former president of Fox College in Chicago. The museum is the first in the nation to focus exclusively on American writers, and expects to draw up to 120,000 visitors per year. (Shelf Awareness)
“I’ve always been a critically conscious reader so it’s a struggle to get out of my own way and not analyze every aspect of every story for its political fitness. Human stories are always more complicated and problematic, and that awareness has fed back into my journalism.” At the Barnes & Noble Review, Tobias Carroll interviews British journalist and author Laurie Penny about her latest book, Everything Belongs to the Future, her first foray into science fiction.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to raise money for medical expenses needed by David Gutowski, the creator of the popular book and music blog Largehearted Boy, which over the years “has promoted wonderful works by outstanding writers and artists. David’s passion has inspired and motivated new and accomplished artists alike.” Gutowski was diagnosed with a serious illness on September 27.
The Millions and Flavorwire round up a list of anticipated books coming out this month, including Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed, a modern take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and Brit Bennett’s buzzed-about debut novel, The Mothers.
At New Statesman, Neel Mukherjee considers acclaimed novelist Amitav Ghosh’s latest book, The Great Derangement, a nonfiction work that raises questions of how novelists write about global warming and climate change. Specifically, “What is the place of the non-human in the modern novel?” And, “What is it in the nature of modernity that has led to the separation [of science fiction and the literary mainstream]?”
