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:
In a venture launched yesterday, original stories and essays by Jonathan Safran Foer, Malcolm Gladwell, Toni Morrison, George Saunders, and Michael Lewis will adorn cups and bags at Chipotle restaurants across the country. The project, which the burrito chain is calling "Cultivating Thought," was initiated by Foer—who teamed up with Chipotle CEO Steve Ells and solicited the contributors—after the Eating Animals author found himself bored while eating a burrito. (Vanity Fair)
Weighing in on behalf of literary agents in the ongoing battle between Amazon and Hachette, the Association of Authors’ Representatives has sent a letter to Amazon condemning the retailer’s ill treatment of writers during the course of their dispute. (Publishers Weekly)
A German court has sided with publishers of Helen Schucman’s book A Course in Miracles in a lawsuit brought against a German Christian association that posted extracts of the book online without permission. Originally written in 1975, the author believed the book was divinely inspired, and the organization argued that the work of Jesus Christ could not be copyrighted. (Guardian)
The British Library has launched a new online collection of classic books and artifacts. Discovering Literature includes the works and notebooks of Jane Austen, William Blake, and H. G. Wells, among others. (Telegraph)
The Harry Ransom Center, a library and research center at the University of Texas in Austin, has obtained British writer Ian McEwan’s archive, which includes letters, manuscripts, and e-mails from 1997 onward. (Los Angeles Times)
Penguin Random House has created a new marketing division called the Consumer Marketing Development and Operations Group, which will work to market directly to customers. (GalleyCat)
The Pioneer Institute, a Boston think tank, has released a report slamming the Common Core teaching standards, arguing that the lack of autonomy for schools and teachers along with the failure to encourage the teaching of poetry will lead to a drop-off in readers of verse. (Boston Globe)
Ben Lerner reviews the third volume of Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle, published this month in its English translation by Archipelago Books. (London Review of Books)
