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:
After eight months of casting and auditioning nearly nine thousand children, the producers of the television adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend have released the show’s first official images. (Vulture)
Harper Lee’s estate is suing the producers of the Broadway adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, claiming it deviates too much from the original novel. The adaptation was written by Aaron Sorkin and is due to begin previews in November with Jeff Daniels starring as Atticus Finch. (Washington Post)
The last book that made her cry was Helen DeWitt’s Some Trick, her two biggest literary influences are Lorrie Moore and David Sedaris, and to her, “any woman who has to take an author photo where she looks the just-right amount of appealing is a literary hero.” Sloane Crosley talks books and writing with the New York Times.
In honor of Women’s History Month, the Huffington Post rounds up thirty-five of the best books written by women in the past five years.
“I go to the gym, drink white wine, agree to travel (my husband would go to almost any country, almost any day), get the flu (or manage to get sick in some other way; that’s a surefire way to get me back at the desk), make elaborate dinners (preferably based on Joe Famularo’s cookbooks, or improvising on the madly inventive recipes of James Haller), go visit friends, spend too much time on email and read at least two books at the same time, which otherwise drives me mad.” Ann Beattie on getting through writer’s block. (Oxford American)
Atlas Obscura visits the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair and checks out how book appraisers can estimate the value of a book or magazine in less than thirty seconds.
“The best advice I’ve ever received is to be myself because it is too difficult to be someone I’m not.” Roxane Gay answers twenty questions. (Times Literary Supplement)