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.
Oprah Winfrey has selected The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates as the first title for the new iteration of her book club with Apple. The first episode of Oprah’s Book Club, featuring Oprah’s interview with Coates, will be available for streaming through Apple TV+ on November 1. (O, The Oprah Magazine)
The diary of Renia Spiegel, a Jewish girl born in Poland and shot by the Nazis at age eighteen, is a poignant record of life under both Soviet and Nazi occupations. Spiegel’s diary is now being published in English for the first time and is out in the U.S. today. (New York Times)
“It's not the topic I would've chosen. But it was the topic I was given.” 60 Minutes visits Chanel Miller during recording sessions for the audiobook of her work of nonfiction, Know My Name. In conversation with Bill Whitaker, Miller discusses her experience of sexual violence, the name "Emily Doe," and writing her own story. (CBS)
In an extended interview for Esquire, Margaret Atwood talks The Testaments, social media, and implores readers to vote. “Which candidate is going to take you the farthest he or she can from Gilead? Panic isn’t helpful.”
Publishers Weekly surveys the Canadian publishing landscape, with notes on the Margaret Atwood phenomenon, imported versus homegrown bestsellers, and the diverse work of independent presses.
At the Los Angeles Review of Books, crime writers Jamie Mason and Elizabeth Little discuss the origins of Mason’s latest novel, The Hidden Things, and the delicate task of depicting trauma.
Mark O’Connell has been awarded the 2019 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for his nonfiction book, To Be a Machine. The €10,000 prize honors an emerging Irish writer whose work demonstrates “exceptional promise.” (Irish Times)
The Guardian has shared its picks for the hundred best books of the twenty-first century, including works by Sally Rooney, J.K. Rowling, and Colson Whitehead.
