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.
PEN America has announced the recipients of its career-achievement literary awards. Among the honorees, M. NourbeSe Philip will receive the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature, and Rigoberto González will receive the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry. The awards will be among those presented at the 2020 PEN America Literary Awards on March 2 in New York City.
The remaining members of the Romances Writers of America (RWA) board of directors have resigned. The announcement comes as the organization continues to reckon with issues of diversity and inclusion, specifically after facing sharp criticism for its actions against romance author Courtney Milan late last year. The RWA will hold a special election March 13 through March 20 to select a new board.
Kathleen Graber has won the 2020 Rilke Prize for her latest collection, The River Twice. Administered by the University of North Texas, the $10,000 prize honors “a book that demonstrates exceptional artistry and vision written by a mid-career poet.”
“While poets alone can’t save us, they can remind us of the necessary virtues that seem to be vanishing from our public conversation.” Craig Morgan Teicher celebrates recent and forthcoming poetry collections. (NPR)
Halimah Marcus offers advice and recommended readings for learning how to write satisfying endings that are “surprising yet inevitable.” (Electric Literature)
Sarah Rose Sharp visits the recently relocated Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library in Indianapolis. (Hyperallergic)
Journalist Rob Harvilla talks to the Creative Independent about moving between different magazines, and learning from different editors and editorial processes.
The Washington Post rounds up some of contemporary literature’s “most swoon-worthy book dedications.”
