Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—publishing reports, literary dispatches, academic announcements, and more—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today’s stories.
Jonathan Karp has been appointed chief executive of Simon & Schuster. He succeeds Carolyn Reidy, who died earlier this month due to a heart attack. Most recently, Karp served as president and publisher of the company’s adult publishing division. In an e-mail to employees this morning, he wrote, “As we search for meaning in the chaos and joy amid the sadness, the books we champion will serve as a beacon and a balm.” (New York Times)
The Academy of American Poets has awarded $50,000 fellowships to twenty-three poets laureate across the nation. Established in 2019 and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Poets Laureate Fellowship program offers poets the financial resources to develop civic poetry projects. This year’s recipients include Mary Ruefle, poet laureate of Vermont, and Laura Tohe, poet laureate of the Navajo Nation.
The organizers of the Frankfurt Book Fair have announced they intend to move forward with an in-person festival this October. While pledging to operate the fairground and local events “in accordance with a detailed health and hygiene plan,” the organizers are also at work on a robust digital program.
Tim Parks proposes a new set of literary categories. In the first of a series of essays, he tackles writers whose work is structured by the question of belonging. (New York Review Daily)
“If there were ever a summer to stop apologizing, to stop pretending and to stop worrying about what we should read, it’s this summer.” Ron Charles unpacks the pejorative connotation of “summer reading.” (Washington Post)
Readers are often taught to be wary of conflating the “I” in a poem with the poet, but Jonathan Farmer argues that sometimes this rule is meant to be broken. (Millions)
Larry Kramer, a writer and dedicated AIDS activist, died on Wednesday at age eighty-four. (NPR)
Julian K. Jarboe, the author of Everyone on the Moon Is Essential Personnel, discusses their drafting process. (Rumpus)
And the Daily Shout-Out goes to Tin House Books, which is hosting its first virtual poetry event tonight. Hosted by Skylight Books, the event will feature Jenny Zhang, Tommy Pico, Morgan Parker, and Khadijah Queen.
