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:
Two weeks after announcing his plan to donate $1.25 million to school libraries, James Patterson is increasing his donation to $1.5 million, due to overwhelming demand. (Shelf Awareness)
A previously unpublished short story by playwright Tennessee Williams appears in the spring issue of the Strand. "The Eye That Saw Death" is a horror tale seemingly indebted to Edgar Allan Poe. (Associated Press)
“This is not the voice of a confident country. It sounds rather like a country whose painful relationship with language has left it voiceless.” At the New York Times, novelist Aatish Taseer reflects on how class and language impacted India’s literary tradition.
World Poetry Day took place this past Saturday, March 21. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) established the day in 1999 with the aim of “supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and offering endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their communities.”
In honor of World Poetry Day, over one thousand coffee shops in twenty-three countries participated in the “Pay With a Poem” promotion, in which customers could trade their own poems for a cup of coffee. (Guardian)
Why is The Great Gatsby considered the “Great American Novel?” At the Washington Post, Joel Achenbach reviews Maureen Corrigan’s book So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why it Endures.
On April 7 in Los Angeles, Courtney Love, Devendra Banhart, and other musicians will perform in a benefit concert marking the sixtieth anniversary of Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl.” Proceeds will go to the David Lynch Foundation, which utilizes Transcendental Meditation techniques to help individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. (Poetry Foundation)
