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:
J. D. Salinger, the reclusive author of Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey, and many popular and critically-acclaimed short stories, died on Wednesday in Cornish, New Hampshire, at the age of ninety-one (New York Times). The Guardian collected tributes to Salinger from Joyce Carol Oates and E. L. Doctorow, among others, while Rick Moody wrote a piece for NPR. The Rutland Herald spoke to Salinger's neighbors, who helped the author protect his privacy all these years.
Penguin will relaunch Salinger's backlist this June with new jacket covers approved by Salinger himself (Bookseller).
Borders Group cut 165 positions in its corporate division and distribution centers (Publishers Weekly).
Random House and McGraw-Hill were both conspicuously absent from the list of major publishing partners at Wednesday's Apple event (New York Post).
Borders UK, which collapsed in November of 2009, has struggled to repay publishers and creditors an amount estimated at over $60 million (Bookseller).
New York City's mayor has proposed cutting 689 library positions from the citywide budget over the next two years (Library Journal).
The London Book Fair, one of the world's largest book-publishing trade events, kicks off at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre next month.
Santa Cruz county appointed its first ever poet laureate (Mercury News).
