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:
Virginia Quarterly Review snagged six nominations for National Magazine Awards in the print categories—VQR was awarded an Ellie for digital media last month—tying New York and the New York Times Magazine and second to the New Yorker, which lead the pack with nine nominations. As the New York Times reminds us, it was a rough year at VQR.
According to the Guardian, more than one hundred poets, including British poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, have protested Arts Council England's decision to cut funding for The Poetry Book Society while commercially successful publisher Faber continues to receive funds. One former Faber director, Desmond Clarke, declared, "If I were still a director of Faber I would actually be embarrassed that we should take money when the Poetry Book Society has lost funding."
A group of twenty-five booksellers in Australia who have been operating as franchises of Angus & Robertson terminated their assocation with the bankrupt parent company after news broke that it would no longer honor outstanding gift vouchers. "Customers have viewed this as an act of bad faith that has caused considerable damage to the Angus & Robertson brand in which every franchisee has made a substantial investment," said one franchise operator, Marie Fitzpatrick. (Australian)
In related news, Borders Australia, which, like its unrelated American counterpart, also entered bankruptcy proceedings this year, announced the closure of sixteen Australian Borders stores, leaving nine in operation. (Weekly Book Newsletter)
The Awl has a report on the latest scholarship to emerge from the rich contents of the David Foster Wallace archive at the Harry Ransom Center in Texas. Today's installment centers on addiction and the self-help books that Wallace generously annotated and conversed with in marginalia.
Academic publisher Continuum has opened its own e-book store that will have two thousand titles for sale by the end of April and will eventually have all of the publishers 8,500 titles available in digital form. (Publishers Weekly)
Plymouth State University has acquired six letters from Robert Frost written during his time in England during World War I. (Huffington Post)
What's going on with the Russian book market these days? Publishers Weekly takes a closer look.
James Franco has agreed to teach a graduate school class at New York University focused on adapting poems into short films. (FilmDrunk)
