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:
With the revised Google Book Search settlement expected today, the Open Book Alliance—which comprises Amazon, Microsoft, and the National Writers Union, among other groups—has released a set of “baseline requirements” for the new deal (Press Release). Changes to the controversial arrangement are expected to include an “opt-in” provision for foreign publishers (Bookseller).
New budget proposals could offer hope for threatened branches of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, city officials said last week (Library Journal).
In an unusual move, the New York Times Book Review has published the full text of a letter from author Mark Danner alleging that the weekly violated “journalistic fairness” with its review of Danner’s Stripping Bare the Body (Nation, 2009) last month (Huffington Post).
Financial straits have forced the twenty-sixth annual Miami Book Fair International—which began yesterday and runs through November 15—to cut poetry, music, and the traditional kick-off parade from its schedule (Associated Press).
The Paris Review announced on Friday that Philip Gourevitch, editor of the literary quarterly for the last five years, will step down from his post in April to write full-time (Los Angeles Times).
Citing overwhelming demand, Barnes & Noble has again pushed back the shipping date for preorders of its Nook reading device (Wall Street Journal).
Facing a hostile economic climate, a dozen academic publishers in the U.K. are among those organizing to create a Europe-wide University Press Association (Bookseller).
The House Judiciary Committee won praise last week from the American Library Association when it approved a series of amendments to the USA Patriot Act, but the bill still needs to survive votes in the full House and Senate (Library Journal).
