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:
Archivists at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation have discovered Burgess’s dictionary of slang, a manuscript commissioned by Penguin Books in 1965. The author completed entries for the letters A, B, and Z, including “abfab” and “abdabs,” before giving up on the project. (Guardian)
The Dr. Seuss Museum opened this weekend in Springfield, Massachusetts, the hometown of Dr. Seuss, otherwise known as Theodor Geisel. The museum features interactive exhibits inspired by Geisel’s books, as well as some of the author’s artwork and belongings, including his collection of 117 bowties. The museum is aimed towards children and does not include his political illustrations or World War II propaganda, which stereotyped Japanese people. (USA Today)
The New York Times takes a look at The Sewanee Review and its new editor, novelist Adam Ross, who has revamped the 125-year-old journal since taking over a year and a half ago. The journal, which once published work by writers such as William Faulkner, T. S. Eliot, and Sylvia Plath, had lost most of its readership in the past forty years.
“I imagine that behind every bilingual person there is a story of separation. Of homes left behind, families divided, identities remade over and over again.” Fiction writer Yoojin Grace Wuertz writes about being bilingual and the decision to raise her son as bilingual. (Guernica)
Publishers Weekly reports on a conversation between Hillary Clinton and Wild author Cheryl Strayed that took place last week at BookExpo America, an annual publishing conference in New York City. The former presidential candidate discussed independent bookselling, her favorite authors, and her forthcoming books: an essay collection about the 2016 presidential election and a children’s book adaptation of her 1996 book, It Takes a Village.
“I had become my own Scheherazade.” Michael Frank recounts the experience of recording the audiobook of his memoir, The Mighty Franks, which came out last month from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (Atlantic)
Elizabeth A. Harris considers how the City University of New York has become a fertile ground for poetry with its diverse student body, New York City location, and renowned faculty, which includes Tyehimba Jess, Ben Lerner, and Patricia Smith. (New York Times)
“Poems will not save your life. But what poems can do at best is provide you a roadmap so that you can save your life. They’re just little maps. If you’re listening to yourself—if you’re trusting yourself.” Poet Aziza Barnes talks with VICE about confronting fears through poetry and writing to understand her queerness and blackness.
