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 weeks of anticipation, the actual fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird will be observed this Sunday. Not surprisingly, the book is soaring up the U.K. bestseller charts, according to the Guardian, and it remains on USA Today's bestseller list—the book sells roughly one million copies a year, and over thirty million total copies are in print.
The Houston-based literary journal Gulf Coast has started a subscription drive during which the magazine will "donate all subscription proceeds (about six dollars of the sixteen dollar subscription cost) to the Gulf Restoration Network, an organization committed to uniting and empowering people to protect and restore the natural resources of the Gulf Coast Region for future generations."
Sony is developing a "portable device that shares characteristics of hand-held game
machines, e-book readers, and netbook computers," according to the Wall Street Journal (by way of Liliputing).
An antique dealer was convicted of possessing a 387-year-old Shakespeare folio—he was caught after boldly strolling into the Folger Shakespeare Library to have it appraised—that was stolen from Durham University in England in 1998. (Telegraph)
The Death of Bunny Munro, a novel by the musician and screenwriter Nick Cave, is set to be made into a TV mini-series. (NME)
Publishers Weekly posits a theory on the "plethora of subcategories" that make up Amazon's "very specific bestseller lists": "Carve the data thin enough and everyone's a winner."
Writers of African descent from America and Europe as well as a host of African writers are "winding their way across Africa" in coordination with the World Cup for a project called Pilgrimages for the Chinua Achebe Center for African Writers and Artists. The fifteen authors are currently contributing to a group blog and "each will publish a book of nonfiction about his or her travels," according to the Los Angeles Times.
Friday fun: The Chicago Tribune conducted an "unscientific poll" to find the "most commonly used phrases in rejection letters to writers." Enjoy!
