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:
In the first art-themed issue of the New York Times Book Review, five contemporary artists, including Wangechi Mutu, Joan Jonas, and Jacolby Satterwhite, create striking visual art pieces as book reviews.
Argentine writer Pablo Katchadjian could face up to six years in prison for intellectual property fraud from remixing and publishing his own version of Jorge Luis Borges’s short story “The Aleph.” Writer Fernando Sdriogotti condemns the charge, stating, “That in 2015, when everything is reproduced and available to anyone clever enough to perform a web search, someone can risk prison for a literary game brings into view the clear incongruities between contemporary culture and copyright laws.” (Guardian)
The American Booksellers Association (ABA) has sent a letter to the U.S. Conference of Mayors urging city officials to include independent booksellers in discussions about minimum wage increases. In the letter, ABA CEO Oren Teicher writes, “When cities raise the minimum wage without including small business owners in important policy discussions, they risk harming the people they are seeking to help, by forcing independent businesses, which work on very small margins, to cut benefits or staff hours—or worse, to go out of business.”
“Gibran’s resonance reflects the power of the non-mechanized human spirit, the yearning for simple understandings of even our hyper-sophisticated life.” Gil Troy considers the enduring resonance and popularity of Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran in America. (Daily Beast)
Five hundred new entries have been added to the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). The additions mainly consist of colloquial phrases such as “hot mess,” and “twerk,” which has origins dating back to 1820. (NPR)
After almost ten years of budget cuts, the New York City public library system will receive its largest funding increase ever. The extra $39 million will fund restoration projects at all branches and create five hundred new jobs. (Hyperallergic)
Best-selling author Margaret Atwood will contribute cartoons to the Kickstarter campaign for The Secret Lives of Geek Girls, an all-female anthology of true stories and cartoons compiled by Canadian editor and comic book publisher Hope Nicholson. (Flavorwire)
