Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—publishing reports, literary dispatches, academic announcements, and more—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today’s stories.
Hachette Book Group announced on Friday that it no longer plans to publish Woody Allen’s autobiography, Apropos of Nothing. The acquisition, which was first announced on Monday, March 2, has been met with sharp criticism from across the industry, with many acknowledging that Dylan Farrow, Allen’s adopted daughter, has long alleged Allen abused her as a child. In the days before Hachette dropped the contract and returned all rights to Allen, Ronan Farrow, who published Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators with Little, Brown last year, said he would cut ties with the company to express solidarity with his sister. Hachette employees in both New York City and Boston also staged walkouts to protest the acquisition. (New York Times)
“Our denial is so thick about the world we’ve actually made, and we’re pointing at it like someone else did it.” Lidia Yuknavitch urges setting aside fear, looking closely at reality, and committing to “de-hierarchizing existence.” (Lambda Literary)
Zoë Ruiz talks to Viet Thanh Nguyen and his six-year-old son, Ellison Nguyen, about working together to write Chicken of the Sea. She also catches up with the illustrators, Thi Bui and her teenage son, Hien Bui-Stafford, about bringing the narrative to life in color. (Millions)
“People are complicated, people are conflicted all the time about stuff they say and do and feel. I want to see more of that on the page, especially when it comes to Black characters.” Brandon Taylor talks to the Guardian about his debut novel, Real Life, and attempting to capture the “fully human” in his art.
Kristin Iversen celebrates influential women in publishing from “behind-the-scenes publicity powerhouses to the biggest authors to prominent critics to podcast hosts to, you know, supermodels.” (Refinery29)
Matthew Klam discusses writing “Adina, Astrid, Chipewee, Jasmine,” a story about a couple’s experience with premature childbirth. (New Yorker)
Clarissa Goenawan, the author of The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida, recommends contemporary novels by Japanese women writers. (Electric Literature)
The Cut profiles the Assouline family, the “librarians of luxury” who publish art books in partnership with the world’s most elite corporations.
