Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—publishing reports, literary dispatches, academic announcements, and more—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today’s stories.
Macmillan has announced it will establish a new thirteen-member management committee that will govern the company’s trade and shared services divisions. In a letter to staff, CEO John Sargent wrote, “It is clear that we have to change who occupies the seats at the table when the important decisions are being made.” While president Don Weisberg and COO Andrew Weber will join and help lead the committee, Sargent will “step back from day-to-day management to make room for new voices” and not be on the committee. As CEO, Sargent will continue to oversee Macmillan’s global businesses. (Publishers Weekly)
Spread the Word, the Bookseller, and Goldsmiths, University of London have been at work on a report that studies diversity in publishing in the United Kingdom. The report, released today, includes an introduction by Bernardine Evaristo, who writes that the researchers’ findings confirm that the U.K. book industry “hasn’t changed fast enough to become more inclusive.” (Guardian)
After a series of resignations shook the board of directors at the National Book Critics Circle, the remaining members issued a statement to clarify next steps. The organization will pause reading and deliberation for its 2020 awards in order to focus on fulfilling the promises in its anti-racism pledge and action plan. Only nine of the board’s original twenty-four members remain, and Jane Ciabattari has been temporarily appointed board president. Carlin Romano—who was called out for anti-Blackness and racism by former board member Hope Wabuke—remains as vice president of grants. (Publishers Weekly)
“It occurs to me that what I right now want for my children is to equip them with fight and armor and space for dreaming in the long, constant work of our trying to get free.” Aracelis Girmay searches for the right language to speak to children about whiteness and police brutality. (Paris Review Daily)
“When an animal or a species disappears from the world it’s not just their biological identity that’s lost, it’s also a way of being in the world.” James Bradley discusses exploring questions of ecological loss in his latest novel, Ghost Species. (Chicago Review of Books)
Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafón, the author of The Shadow of the Wind, died on Friday at age fifty-five. Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister of Spain, paid tribute to Ruiz Zafón on Twitter, writing, “Thank you for letting us travel through your stories.” (New York Times)
Robert D. Richardson, a celebrated historian who wrote prize-winning biographies on William James and Ralph Waldo Emerson, died on June 16 at age eighty-six. (Associated Press)
“A writer racing to be timely is, by definition, not pausing to digest, muse, rethink, revise.” Bill Morris advises against rushing to write about the pandemic. (Millions)
