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:
Granta has announced its third “Best Young American Novelists” list, which includes Emma Cline, Yaa Gyasi, Catherine Lacey, Ben Lerner, Anthony Marra, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Esmé Weijun Wang. Released every ten years, the list highlights the “most exciting American writers under the age of forty.”
“We come wanting to do more than just sell our stories to white audiences. And we come with the desire not just to show, but to tell.” Viet Thanh Nguyen argues against the writing workshop and its “Show, don’t tell” approach as a pedagogy that excludes women, writers of color, and working-class writers. (New York Times)
The New Republic reviews critic Adam Kirsch’s new book, The Global Novel: Writing the World in the 21st Century, and considers the challenges authors face to write books that reach readers outside of their country in an age of increased xenophobia and populism.
Speaking of international literature, Saudi writer Mohammed Hasan Alwan has won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his novel A Small Death. The annual award is given for an Arabic novel published in the previous year; the winner receives $50,000 and funding to translate and publish the book in English. (Guardian)
Garson O’Toole has published the book Hemingway Didn’t Say That: The Truth Behind Familiar Quotations, which traces the origins of well-known—and often misattributed—quotes. O’Toole—the pseudonym for researcher Gregory F. Sullivan—based the book, which came out earlier this month, on work from his website, Quote Investigator. (New York Times)
“Keep the faith. Whatever that may be. Don’t get too depressed yet, because I have a belief in America being very diverse and ornery, and containing a lot of people who are not going to roll over very easily for a totalitarian dictatorship.” Margaret Atwood speaks about The Handmaid’s Tale, both the book and the television adaptation, which premieres on Hulu today. (Los Angeles Times)
At the Millions, Matt Seidel writes an ode to the word on, “a preposition wrapped in an adverb wrapped in an enigma.”
Librairie Mollat, an independent bookstore in France, has taken the “bookface” Instagram photo to a new level. (Mashable)
