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:
To celebrate its third anniversary of becoming a nonprofit, the Little Free Library organization is hosting a worldwide book drive for children’s and young adult books on May 16. People are encouraged to drop off books at their neighborhood Little Free Library; afterwards, stewards will distribute the books to communities in need. (RushPR News)
Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Franz Wright has died at age sixty-two after a long battle with cancer. The son of James Wright, another Pulitzer Prize–winning poet, Franz Wright authored over a dozen poetry collections and published several translations of work by Rainer Maria Rilke and Rene Char. Wright’s editor at Knopf, Deborah Garrison, said in a statement, “Franz lived for poetry—at times it seemed it kept him alive—and he managed to write poems in which the choice to live feels continually renewed, not just an urgent daily requirement for the poet but a call to arms that includes every single reader.” (SF Gate)
As citizens of one of the most censored countries in the world, Iranian writers and translators are turning to digital and underground publishing outlets to eschew censorship from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. (Guardian)
Lionsgate Films has bought the rights to a film about renowned Scribner book editor Max Perkins. The film, Genius, is an adaptation of A. Scott Berg’s biography of Perkins, who worked with famous authors including Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Colin Firth plays the role of Perkins. (Hollywood Reporter)
According to a report from the World Cities Cultural Forum, Buenos Aires, Argentina has more bookstores per capita than any other city in the world. The city boasts 735 bookstores for a population of 2.8 million. (Melville House)
A group of Columbia University students recently wrote an op-ed stating that the classical Greek tragedy Metamorphoses by Ovid needs a trigger warning because of its depictions of sexual violence (Washington Post). At the New Republic, University of Chicago professor Jerry A. Coyne responds, arguing that trigger warnings such as these may eventually lead to every literary work being labeled as offensive.
Poet Amiri Baraka’s play about author and civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois, Most Dangerous Man, will premiere at the Castillo Theater in New York City on May 28. Director Woodie King Jr. speaks with the New York Times about the play and Du Bois’s influence on the late Baraka, who died in January 2014.
