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:
After four days of rioting in London, bookshops have been mostly spared (Los Angeles Times). A glaring exception is Gay’s the Word on Marchmont Street, which was pelted with eggs and had its front window smashed. (Bookseller)
Despite cries that the sky is falling, with recent sales data compiled and released by the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group, it seems book publishing is stronger today than it was two years ago, reporting over 5 percent sales growth. (New York Times)
Donna Gregor, a long-time employee of the Mark Twain House and Museum in West Hartford, Connecticut, plead guilty to charges of wire fraud and filing a false tax return. Over eight years, Gregor embezzled one million dollars from the financially strapped museum. (Reuters)
The iPad app created for T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land has paid for its creation costs in the six weeks since its June release. (Guardian)
A new production of Shakespeare's Hamlet incorporates the songs of country music legend Hank Williams. The Los Angeles Times examines other intersections of the Bard of Avon with America's roots music.
If you've ever been curious as to what transpires at the unique Vermont writers' conference known as Bread Loaf, children's book author Gail Gauthier offers this remembrance. (Millions)
The books editors at Amazon Publishing have selected ten soon-to-be-released literary novels they are most excited about. (Galleycat)
In The Submission, debut novelist Amy Waldman envisions what may happen if a Muslim architect were awarded the task of designing a memorial to victims of a terrorist attack. Waldman's publisher has timed the book's release to coincide with the tenth-anniversary unveiling of the 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero. (Daily Beast)
