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:
In an interview at Bookforum, fiction writer Garth Greenwell discusses his debut novel, What Belongs to You, the traditions of autofiction and queer literature, and how patience is crucial to sustaining aesthetic and emotional intensity when writing prose. “Inherent to narrative is a kind of horizontal, forward movement in time that urges you to the next event. I wanted to resist that and instead create these lyrical moments of exploration.”
Acclaimed Screenwriter and director Michael Mann is launching his own publishing imprint called Michael Mann Books. The imprint will publish a series of novels by a core group of writers, which will be developed for film or television. One of the imprint’s top priority projects is to publish a prequel novel to Mann’s 1995 film, Heat. (Deadline)
A copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales that was owned by Anne Frank is set to go up for auction in May. The book, which is signed by Frank, is expected to fetch between $20,000 and $30,000. (CNBC News)
Qatari poet Mohammed al-Ajami, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for his poem that was found to be critical of the former Qatari ruler, was pardoned and released from jail on Tuesday. (BBC News)
What does it mean for a poet to be “successful” in 2016? At Flavorwire, poet Anna Moschcovakis discusses various definitions of success, as well as her third collection, They and We Will Get Into Trouble for This.
Washington Post book critic Michael Dirda writes about “misunderstood” British poet Stevie Smith, whose poetry “could initially be mistaken for light verse…though there’s nothing naive or whimsical beneath her surface.”
The stage adaptation of Claudia Rankine’s multiple award–winning 2014 poetry collection, Citizen: An American Lyric, is scheduled for a New York City premiere in January 2017. Rankine enlisted the help of playwright Stephen Sachs to update her text for the stage. (Playbill.com)
