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.
TIME magazine has named a group of journalists “who have taken great risks in pursuing the truth” as its 2018 Person of the Year. The “Guardians” of truth include Jamal Khashoggi, Maria Ressa, Wa Lone, Kyaw Soe Oo, and the staff of the Capital Gazette.
The year-end book lists keep on coming: At NPR, book critic Maureen Corrigan highlights her picks for the best books of 2018, including her selection for Novel of the Year: Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers.
Meanwhile, at the New York Times, David Orr highlights the Best Poetry of 2018.
John le Carré’s next novel, Agent Running in the Field, will tackle “the division and rage at the heart of our modern world.” The book, which is set in London and will be published in October 2019, is the eighty-seven-year-old author’s twenty-fifth novel. (Guardian)
“It hardly needs to be said that David Sedaris is one of the most beloved modern authors in the world.” The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University has acquired the papers of David Sedaris.
Hear Sedaris read from his collection of diaries, Theft by Finding, on Ampersand: The Poets & Writers Podcast.
Literary agent Selwa Anthony has lost a lawsuit against her former client, internationally best-selling Australian author Kate Morton. Anthony claimed Morton owed her royalties related to the author’s first six books; instead, Anthony has been ordered to pay Morton more than $500,000. (Canberra Times)
“With plenty of actual white men falling from their pedestals, it has seemed, ever since, that Atticus might do so, too.” Casey Cap looks at the contested legacy of Atticus Finch in the era of #MeToo, and considers whether or not Harper Lee’s famous father figure should still be considered a hero. (New Yorker)
