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:
The poet Dean Young, who had been waiting for many months for a heart transplant, underwent a successful surgery on the night of April 14 to receive the heart of a twenty-two-year-old man from Oklahoma. (Austin Chronicle)
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., has appointed University of Wisconsin professor Michael Witmore as its new director, succeeding Gail Kern Pastor's nine-year term. “The greatest challenge we face in the humanities is to show those who do not know what we do, what we do. It is better to show than to tell. The Folger is one of those places where there is plenty to show,” Witmore told the Washington Post.
The International Publishers Association has awarded its annual Freedom to Publish Award to Vietnamese poet and publisher Bui Chat. “After almost 10 years of persistent struggle, the publishing house founded by Bui Chat has helped create an independent publishing movement in Vietnam," said the chair of the award committee. "It has helped tear down the barriers of censorship." (Publishing Perspectives)
Greg Mortenson's climbing partner Scott Darsney, who traveled with the Three Cups of Tea author on some of the trips at the center of the current controversy, has returned from Nepal and come to Mortenson's defense. (Jacket Copy)
Some Colorado filmmakers are adapting a 1906 poem by Alfred Noyes titled "The Highwayman" into a film. (A. V. Club)
Despite seeing revenue increase 38 percent, income for online retail giant Amazon fell 33 percent in the first quarter due to aggressive expansion. (New York Times)
Actor James Franco has been admitted into yet another graduate creative writing program, this time the PhD track at the University of Houston. (Huffington Post)
A new James Bond book written by Jeffery Deaver will be released next month in a special leather-bound, ivory-paper edition produced by British luxury car-maker Bentley. Carte Blanche also comes with a 9mm bullet and an aluminum case shaped to look like a Bentley. (Sydney Morning Herald)
