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 New York Times published its list of the one hundred most notable books of 2010.
Norwegian publishers are offering almost ninety thousand dollars as a reward for information leading to the resolution of the case of the 1993 attempted assassination of the publisher that printed the Norwegian edition of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. According to the Guardian, the Japanese translator of that book was murdered and the Italian translator was attacked, with both cases likewise remaining unsolved.
Fifty years of love letters between Vladimir Nabokov and his wife, Vera, are set to be published in English next year after selections appeared in their original Russian last week in the magazine Snob. Here's an excerpt of an early letter: "How can I explain to you, my joy, my golden one, my heavenly happiness, just how much I am fully yours – with all of my memories, my poems, impulses and inner tremors?" (Independent)
Singer and actor Tom Waits will publish his first book next year, a collection of poetry combined with images of the homeless. (Edmonton Journal)
The Asian American Writers' Workshop has launched a blog to explore the shifting landscape of three New York City neighborhoods through oral histories, interviews, commentary, and creative work.
Did the endless debate about the value of a creative writing education begin way back in 1885 before the MFA was ever invented? (Rumpus)
Speaking of which, is there a distinct MFA literary culture separate from but overlapping a New York City literary culture? n+1 takes a hard look, available online over at Slate.
According to the Star Tribune, older readers are getting a kick out of the Kindle.
