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:
Publishers will bid on a nonfiction book proposal by HBO's Girls creator Lena Dunham this week. Slate's David Haglund reports bidding will start at one million dollars.
Michael Pietsch—who will take over as CEO of Hachette in April—will chair World Book Night in the United States, replacing Morgan Entrekin of Grove/Atlantic. (Shelf Awareness)
Despite Barnes & Noble's claim that they'd not carry Amazon Publishing titles, paidContent found several of Amazon's titles on display at Barnes & Noble in New York City. (Melville House has a follow-up: Barnes & Noble will recall the books in question.)
Author Misha Angrist catalogs the five stages of grief that immediately follow book publication. (Awl)
Seth Fried offers advice on your upcoming MFA application: "Under no circumstances should you use any of the following words or phrases in your teaching statement: body painting, tantric, trust falls." (Tin House)
Design Observer showcases the fifty winning books of its cover design award for 2011, including Christopher Turner's Adventures in the Orgasmatron, and Poetry After 9/11, published by Melville House.
For Banned Books Week, Guernica speaks with Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, which won the National Book Award in 1983 and the next year was "challenged as inappropriate reading material for students."
Paris Review editor Lorin Stein rounded up his favorite collections of short stories, including Roberto Bolaño's Last Evenings on Earth. (Daily Beast)
