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:
LGBT writers, including Saeed Jones and Dawn Lundy Martin, respond to the mass shooting on Sunday at an Orlando gay nightclub, which claimed fifty lives and has been confirmed as the worst shooting in U.S. history. (Lambda Literary)
Check out Litsy, a book-centric social networking app for readers and authors to share and discover new books, organize reading lists, and connect with one another. (Shelf Awareness)
In an interview with the Poetry Foundation, author Kwame Dawes discusses his role as director of the African Poetry Book Fund, a project devoted to publishing collections by African poets. “Given the poor publishing opportunities for even highly regarded poets from Africa, we feel it is imperative that people have access to the work of the best poets in Africa at all stages of their careers. Our goal is not to monopolize this publishing but to start to build interest in and awareness of the work. Eventually, we believe, other publishers will start to pay attention and acquire the work of African poets.”
Graphic novel publisher First Second is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. The press, an imprint of Macmillan, has published a number of authors that have helped establish the graphic novel category in the publishing industry. Gene Luen Yang is one of First Second’s most notable authors; his 2006 work American Born Chinese was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award. First Second will release twenty-four titles this year, and as many as forty titles in 2017. (Publishers Weekly)
Fiction writer Rumaan Alam talks about his debut novel, Rich and Pretty, writing women characters, and how parenthood has been helped increase the essential aspect of empathy in his writing. (NPR)
French publisher Les Puf has opened a new print-on-demand bookstore in Paris’s Latin Quarter. The Librairie des Puf bookstore does not stock any physical books, but instead offers millions of titles to customers by request via an Espresso Book Machine. The print-on-demand business model is one of the innovative ways bookstores are surviving in the age of Amazon. (New York Times)
According to a recent study conducted in Europe, the number of books one reads positively correlates to the amount of income earned. The study concluded that those who read at least ten “non-compulsory-school-reading books” earned 21 percent more income than those who read fewer. Correlation is not causation, however, and the benefits of reading reach far beyond the financial, but readers can rejoice regardless. (Electric Literature)
