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:
The Society of Authors and English PEN have published an essay written by Turkish writer Ahmet Altan on the eve of his trial, which starts today. Altan has been imprisoned since September 2016 on charges of attempting to overthrow the Turkish government; many believe he is being unjustly held for exercising his freedom of speech. In his essay Altan writes: “I am writing this in a prison cell. But I am not in prison. I am a writer. I am neither where I am nor where I am not. You can imprison me but you cannot keep me in prison. Because, like all writers, I have magic. I can pass through walls with ease.” (Guardian)
Meanwhile, the New York Review of Books has published the last written text of poet and activist Liu Xiaobo, who died in July while serving an eleven-year prison term for “inciting subversion of state power” by speaking out for democracy and human rights in China. The text is Liu’s preface for a photography collection by his wife, Liu Xia, who disappeared after his death.
Writer Ann Beattie shares how she procrastinates from writing at night by Googling, reading word etymologies, looking at her husband’s paintings, and arranging objects in her house to prank her husband or guests.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof is collaborating with the Poetry Society of America to hold a Trump poetry contest; writers can submit poems about the president via e-mail until October 8.
Fast Company profiles Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, who works in an office that looks like a bookshop, can’t live without books, and regularly quotes Shakespeare and Virginia Woolf.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary has added more than 250 words and phrases in the past month, including “alt-right,” “sriracha,” and “Internet of things.” (Los Angeles Times)
“What I would like to see altered in the literary world: less emphasis by publishers in promoting just a very few titles while not attempting to promote other titles that might be equally meritorious.” Joyce Carol Oates talks with the Rumpus about the literary world and her latest novel, A Book of American Martyrs.
The New Yorker profiles poet Javier Zamora, who traveled from El Salvador to the United States by himself when he was nine. Zamora’s debut collection, Unaccompanied, is out now from Copper Canyon Press.
