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 estate of late poet Ted Hughes is seeking “retraction, correction, and apology” for an alleged fifteen errors and “three unsubstantiated assertions” in Jonathan Bate’s new biography, Ted Hughes: The Unauthorized Life. Bate’s publisher, HarperCollins, has issued a statement in his defense, noting the estate’s withdrawal of support for the biographical project. (Bookseller)
Last week, The Book of Numbers author Joshua Cohen wrote a serialized adaptation of Charles Dickens’s first novel, The Pickwick Papers—titled PCKWCK—live online. At the Believer, Cohen speaks about the interactive writing project: “We’re living in this time of complete transparency and complete accountability. Give the culture the art it deserves.”
Meanwhile, at the New Republic, Kristin Butler looks at Cohen’s project as one instance in the “long history of writing as performance,” and considers the implications of experiments in which the writing process is spectacle.
Is the battle between print and digital books over? In a roundtable hosted by NPR’s Lynn Neary, several publishing professionals discuss the future of print and e-books, as the current market for both formats is relatively stable.
Paris publishing house Saint-Pères is set to publish three previously unseen early drafts of Marcel Proust’s monumental work In Search of Lost Time, which show the progression of the famous madeleine cake anecdote. The madeleine did not appear until the third draft; the sensory food trigger in the first draft was toast and honey, and in the second draft the author bit into hard biscotti. (Guardian)
Celebrated filmmaker David Lynch is writing a hybrid memoir/biography titled Life & Work. Lynch has partnered with journalist Kristine McKenna to compose the book, which will include interviews with Lynch’s collaborators, family, and friends, as well as personal commentary. Grand Central Publishing plans to release Life & Work in 2017. (Rolling Stone)
Publishers Weekly’s annual publishing industry salary survey reveals a younger workforce than in previous years, but also shows a continued lack of diversity in the industry, with the majority of respondents identifying as white.
