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:
“Immigration is anything but pedestrian. To displace one’s self in adulthood, to uproot, to leave behind ways of speaking, moving, being that are second nature is a feat of true grit.” Novelist Shawna Yang Ryan lists five essential books about immigration. (Literary Hub)
Marley Dias, the eleven-year-old girl who launched the campaign #1000blackgirlbooks, has exceeded her goal of collecting one thousand books with black girl protagonists by the beginning of February; she has collected almost four thousand books. Dias shares her top five favorite books about black girls with NPR’s Morning Edition, which includes Jacqueline Woodson’s National Book Award–winning memoir Brown Girl Dreaming.
Yesterday, Time posted an analysis of the one hundred most-read female writers in college classes in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia. The list initially included Brideshead Revisted author Evelyn Waugh—a man—but Time quickly corrected its mistake, replacing Waugh with Marguerite Duras. (Observer)
Feeling lonely? You’re not alone. Writer Olivia Lang, whose book The Lonely City explores how loneliness inspires creativity in artists, recommends ten books about loneliness that also serve as its antidote: “Loneliness is by its nature a profoundly isolating experience. But if a novel or memoir succeeds in mapping its icy regions, then it can alleviate something of the acute pain of feeling islanded, cut off from the world at large.” (Publishers Weekly)
The New Yorker features an excerpt of Edwidge Danticat’s introduction to the new edition of James Baldwin’s 1953 first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, out March 1 from Knopf.
At Paste, writer Paul Goldberg discusses his debut novel, The Yid, and publishing fiction for the first time in his fifties after spending decades as a healthcare journalist.
Today in London, the inaugural Bare Lit Festival begins. The festival, which is organized by the online nonprofit Media Diversified, is devoted to sharing the work of and discussing issues relevant to minority writers. (New York Times)
