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:
Last night, the National Book Critics Circle announced the finalists for the best books of 2014. For the first time in the NBCC’s forty-year history, one book has been nominated in two separate categories: Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric is a finalist for both the poetry and criticism prizes. The NBCC has also announced that Phil Klay has won the John Leonard First Book Prize for his story collection Redeployment, and Toni Morrison has received the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award.
The latest promotion for James Patterson’s new book is explosive—literally. For the hefty price of $294,038, one Patterson fan will be flown to an undisclosed location, enjoy a five-course dinner with the bestselling author, and watch Patterson’s new book Private Vegas self-destruct twenty-four hours after it is opened. (New York Times)
Five years ago, Alex Malarkey wrote the bestselling memoir The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven after he was injured in a car crash, in which he stated he had gone to heaven. Malarkey recently admitted he made up the story of going to heaven to “get attention.” Christian publisher Tyndale House will take the book out of print. (NPR)
Bestselling novelist Haruki Murakami continues to enjoy his role as “agony uncle” on his online advice column “Mr. Murakami’s Place,” which will run through the end of January at the Guardian. Fans have been asking a range of questions, literary and otherwise, such as, “Has Murakami ever wanted to be a cat?” The answer: No, Murakami has not.
Two rare erotic novels speculated to have been written by Oscar Wilde will be published again. With the financial help of a Kickstarter campaign, Canadian PhD candidate Justin O’Hearn will publish Des Grieux and Teleny (1934) to reignite academic discussion about their authorship and depictions of homosexuality. (Melville House)
The e-book remains controversial: Linguistics professor Naomi Baron and her colleagues at American University surveyed over three hundred college students from several countries and found that 92 percent preferred print books over e-books. (New Republic)
“These days, you need a substantial private income—or a public sector pension—to be a full-time writer.” At the Telegraph, Toby Young discusses the current financial difficulties of a career in writing.
