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:
Earlier this month, several European publishing offices were raided—legal contracts were seized, along with smart phones and laptops from senior executives—by European Union officials because the agency model for e-book pricing, which has been adopted by several major publishers and allows publishers to set prices instead of retailers, may "violate EU anti-trust rules that prohibit cartels and other restrictive business practices." (Guardian)
Indie publisher Melville House is donating all profits from sales made through its Web site this week to disaster relief in Japan.
The editor of the book that was pulped by the British Ministry of Defence earlier this week witnessed in person the destruction of all twenty-four thousand copies of Dead Men Risen, and filed this first-hand account with the Telegraph.
The long list for the Miles Franklin Literary Award (Crikey), Australia's premier literary prize, has been announced and includes one author who just received Australian citizenship earlier this month. (Sydney Morning Herald)
More news from Down Under: In the tradition of Dave Eggers's 826 Valencia in San Francisco and Nick Hornby's Ministry of Stories in London, the Sydney Story Factory in Australia has just received seed money from the city's mayor to open its own center for literacy and children's arts education. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Three literary magazines—Poetry, Oxford American, and Virginia Quarterly Review—picked up National Magazine Awards for Digital Media, known as Ellies, at a luncheon in New York City on Wednesday. (Jacket Copy)
Michelle Obama has signed a deal with Crown to pen a book, scheduled for release in 2012, about the garden she planted on the South Lawn of the White House. (Publishers Weekly)
The Los Angeles Times is at the center of a controversy over its use of a photo of Jonathan Franzen in an online article announcing that Jennifer Egan's A Visit From the Goon Squad won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Here's one comment from a reader in Seattle: "Seriously? Seriously??? The news is that literary darling Jonathan Franzen LOST an award, not that (talented but less well-known female) Jennifer Egan WON? Please spend a couple of minutes gazing into your editorial navels today and ask yourselves what happened."
