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:
June 13 will mark the one hundred fiftieth birthday of Irish poet William Butler Yeats. International events honoring the poet are planned for what is known as Yeats Day 2015. As part of the celebration, the Representative Church Body Library (RCB) in Dublin, Ireland, will open its online archive, which includes details of Yeats’s baptism and burial that may not have been previously available to the public. (News Letter)
The 2015 Summer Writing Project kicked off yesterday. Cofounded by Black Hill Press and JukePop, a serial fiction website, the project invites writers to submit installments of original novellas to be posted online. At the end of August, the project’s organizers will select three of the novellas to be published in print by Black Hill Press. (Los Angeles Times)
Novelist Jennifer Cody Epstein stated that she regrets signing the letter opposing PEN American Center’s decision to honor French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo with the “Freedom of Expression Courage Award” last month. PEN’s award to Charlie Hebdo followed an attack at the magazine’s offices in January that left twelve staff members dead. More than two hundred writers signed the letter protesting PEN’s decision, because they felt the magazine produced anti-Muslim content. Epstein said that she had misunderstood Charlie Hebdo’s content, and now believes that the publication’s “controversial images…sprang from satire, not hate.” (Guardian)
Robyn Creswell and Bernard Haykel examine the culture of jihadists through the poetry they write. “Poetry provides a window onto the movement talking to itself. It is in verse that militants most clearly articulate the fantasy life of jihad.” (New Yorker)
“Size matters, indeed it does. Size in books is like volume in heavy metal: It speaks of power.” At the New York Times, authors James Parker and Moshin Hamid debate whether the size of a book relates to its significance.
“I think I keep returning to this passage, and the book as a whole, because it’s important for me to remind myself sometimes that, at its heart, that’s all a great essay is: a virtuoso performance of care.” Creative nonfiction writer Lucas Mann discusses how J. R. Ackerley’s My Dog Tulip helped him to overcome self-doubt, and the worry that one’s own experience is not compelling or worthy enough to write about. Listen to Mann read an excerpt of his memoir Lord Fear for the Poets & Writers Page One Podcast series. (Atlantic)
After the printing press was invented in 1440, book piracy became a problem in Elizabethan England. What parallels can be drawn between this 16th century print theft and today’s rampant online piracy? (Vox)
