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:
At the Guardian, Michelle Dean interviews Anthony Doerr, who won this year’s Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for his novel All the Light We Cannot See. Doerr discusses his writing style, literary influences, and how it took ten years to write his prize–winning book.
Having your memoir turned into a James Franco movie sounds great, but what if the film incorrectly depicts your life? At Vulture, Stephen Elliott writes about the strange experience of seeing the film adapted from his memoir, The Adderall Diaries. “I'm grateful that my own art was deemed a worthy stepping stone for someone else’s art…. Still, what I saw rattled me. What I saw was a very different Stephen Elliott than the person I believe myself to be, and it made me question some of my fundamental beliefs about art.”
Author and essayist Frederic Morton has passed away at age ninety. The Austrian-born Holocaust refugee, who had lived in the United States since 1938, wrote over a dozen books in his lifetime. Morton’s most famous book is The Rothschilds (1962), which was adapted into a Broadway musical. (Washington Post)
“Poetry is what’s thrilling, while a poem is that poor thing with eleven readers, eight of them members of the poet’s extended family.” At the Paris Review, Damion Searls examines the etymology of poetry and its ambiguous definitions.
The Los Angeles Times lists seven pieces of advice from authors Meghan Daum, Malcom Gladwell, and others from the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. The annual festival took place last weekend at the University of Southern California.
“I’m not convinced that having another author’s style rub off on mine would be a terrible thing.” In this week’s installment of the New York Times Bookends series, Zoë Heller and Anna Holmes discuss what they read while writing.
In collaboration with the Highline in New York City, the Academy of American Poets will host an “After Sunset Poetry Walk” on Saturday, April 25. The event, which honors National Poetry Month, will feature a series of traditional, spoken word, and American Sign Language poetry performances along the Highline park.
