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:
Author Anne Enright, who won the 2007 Booker Prize for her novel The Gathering, has been named the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction. Enright’s “eloquent and powerful writing, fiercely individual voice and unyielding commitment to her craft combined to make her the pre-eminent choice,” stated Taoiseach Enda Kenny, who delivered the announcement. (Irish Times)
Songwriter and poet Rod McKuen passed away yesterday at the age of eighty-one. McKuen found commercial songwriting success in the 1960s and 1970s and published more than three-dozen poetry and essay collections in his lifetime. (Los Angeles Times)
“We’ve hit a critical mass of literary data that don’t fit the old dichotomies. Margaret Atwood, Michael Chabon, and Jonathan Lethem are among the most obvious paradigm disruptors, but the list of literary/genre writers keeps expanding.” At the Chronicle of Higher Education, Chris Gavaler discusses the continuous “genre-blurring” of literary fiction.
Here’s one business idea for poets: Set up your typewriter in a subway station and sell custom poems. Poet Lynn Gentry lets commuters in New York City name their own price and pick their own subject, then types out poems on the spot. Gentry says he makes around $700 a week selling poems. (Business Insider)
From its independent bookstores and literary organizations to hosting this year’s AWP conference, it seems that Minnesota is having a literary moment. (Fine Books)
Bestselling British author and Costa Book Awards judge Robert Harris has called the BBC’s lack of book coverage “an absolute disgrace.” Harris noted that when the Costa prize was launched in the 1970s, there were two programs on the BBC dedicated to book coverage, and now there are none. (Telegraph)
Salman Rushdie’s new novel, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, will be published by Random House in September. This will be Rushdie’s first novel for adults in seven years, since the publication of 2008’s The Enchantress of Florence. (Publishers Weekly)
