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:
Poet Kwame Alexander, the bestselling author of The Crossover, will launch his own imprint, Versify, at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers. Alexander will focus on publishing unconventional books for children, particularly titles that incorporate poetry and translation. (New York Times)
The Drunk Shakespeare Company, a “group of professional drinkers with a Shakespeare problem,” has produced an off-Broadway show, Drunk Shakespeare, which combines drinking, improv, and the work of the Bard. (NPR)
“We will not be ignored. We are here. We are not cultural footnotes. We are incredibly influential. And we deserve, period, everything. To be understood. We deserve to not be compared all the time to white women or anybody else, but thought about and considered in our specific context.” Morgan Jerkins talks with the Rumpus about what her essay collection, This Will Be My Undoing, published yesterday by Harper Perennial, tells the world about black women.
Judith Curr, the president and publisher of Atria Publishing at Simon & Schuster, stepped down from her role yesterday. (Publishers Weekly)
“Could it in fact be that understanding isn’t needed in order to translate well? Could an entity, human or machine, do high-quality translation without paying attention to what language is all about?” Translator Douglas Hofstadter investigates the limitations of Google Translate. (Atlantic)
In its latest update, the Oxford English Dictionary has added more than 1,100 new words, including mansplain and hangry, but has steered clear of most of the suggestions—such as poomageddon and poopcasso—offered by the parenting forum Mumsnet. (Guardian)
Meredith Shaw offers a reading of stories published by the “Literary Production Unit” of the North Korean government. (Conversation)
The New Yorker spotlights James McCourt’s 1993 novel about the AIDS pandemic, Time Remaining, which is now out of print.
