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:
Hundreds of writers are meeting in Tokyo this week for PEN's seventy-sixth International Congress. PEN International President John Ralston Saul said in a statement: "There is a new authoritarianism on the rise around the world, including growing waves of old-fashioned nationalism, bigotry and populism on every continent. We are here in Tokyo to stand up and make our voices heard on behalf of those who are stopped from writing and speaking out."
The 2010 MacArthur Fellows have been announced and fiction writer Yiyun Li was named one of the twenty-three recipients of the prestigious "Genius" grant, which includes an award of one hundred thousand dollars a year for five years with no strings attached. (Jacket Copy)
A celebrated Irish poet was forced to destroy nine hundred copies of her forthcoming book "following objections from her millionaire brother." (Independent)
The author and bronze star recipient who saw ten thousand copies of his book destroyed by the Pentagon last week told the Telegraph his version of what led to the destruction of the entire first printing of Operation Dark Heart.
According to the Wall Street Journal, "the digital revolution that is disrupting the economic model of the book industry is having an outsize impact on the careers of literary writers."
Sharp plans to introduce two Android-based e-readers this December. (PCWorld)
A nineteen-year-old Nigerian writer just became the youngest ever woman author to sign with the British publisher Faber. She signed a two-book deal that will see her first novel, The Spider King's Daughter, published next year. (CNN)
Novelist Jonathan Lethem is leaving his "beloved borough" of Brooklyn, New York, to accept the Roy Edward Disney Professorship in Creative Writing at Pamona College in Claremont, California, a post formerly held by the late David Foster Wallace. (New York Post)
