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.
Kirkus Reviews has selected eighteen finalists for the sixth annual Kirkus Prizes, which are awarded in three categories: fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature. The winners, who will be announced at a special ceremony on October 24, will each receive $50,000.
The National Book Foundation continues to release the longlists for the 2019 National Book Awards this week. This morning the foundation announced the longlist for the award in translated literature. The list features ten titles translated into English from ten different languages, and includes seven novels, two memoirs, and one essay collection. (New Yorker)
Macmillan has named Amy Einhorn president and publisher of Henry Holt. Previously, Einhorn served as executive vice president and publisher of Flatiron Books. (Shelf Awareness)
Read more about Einhorn’s background in publishing and her approach to editing in her Agents & Editors interview with Poets & Writers Magazine.
At the Paris Review Daily, Margaret Atwood praises The Gift by Lewis Hyde, and shares why it’s the book she always recommends to aspiring artists. “If you want to write, paint, sing, compose, act, or make films, read The Gift. It will help to keep you sane.”
Cambridge University fellow Jason Scott-Warren noticed an uncanny resemblance between anonymous annotations in a copy of Shakespeare’s first folio and John Milton’s hand. Scholars are excited about the text, which many have agreed is Milton’s copy. “This allows us to see the encounter happening,” says Scott-Warren. “It shows you the firsthand encounter between two great writers.” (Guardian)
“I subscribe to the idea that as writers our weaknesses often shape our voice. I have very little capacity to sustain a straightforward narrative as a writer.” Emily Arnason Casey talks to the Rumpus about addiction, landscape, and truth in her debut essay collection, Made Holy.
John Mulaney will play Henry David Thoreau in Apple’s forthcoming series Dickinson. There’s no evidence, however, that Emily Dickinson ever met Thoreau. (Vanity Fair)
Poet, teacher, and bookseller Jane Mead died last week on September 8. (Napa Valley Register)
