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:
A spokesperson for Oxford Dictionaries has agreed to review its example sentences “to ensure they reflect current usage on an ongoing basis,” after the dictionary was accused of using sexist examples for certain words. Anthropologist Michael Oman-Reagan alerted Oxford University Press—the dictionary’s publisher—of the example of “rabid,” as in “rabid feminist,” and noted other sexist examples, including “shrill” as in “the rising shrill of women’s voices,” and “psyche” as in “I will never really fathom the female psyche.” (Guardian)
Meanwhile, VIDA: Women in Literary Arts provides a list of women-run presses and literary magazines throughout the United States. Kate Angus, who compiled the list, says she hopes the list will be a “useful resource for women writers looking for places to submit their work just as much as for people who want to support presses and journals run by women.”
“I’m interested in the way in which one ‘reality’ can compromise another. I go for intense ambiguity, where you just don’t know what the stable ground is.” At Bookforum, fiction writer Brian Evenson discusses his latest short story collection, A Collapse of Horses, how he scares his readers, and how his stories don’t rely on one version of reality, often intensifying the work’s creepy effects.
Riverhead Books—an imprint of Penguin that publishes best-selling literary fiction and nonfiction—has unveiled a new colophon. Riverhead art director Helen Yentus designed the new logo, a mark she says “reflects the fiercely contemporary, hugely varied voices from all over the world that we help bring to readers each year.” Riverhead has published works by award-winning authors including Junot Diaz, Lauren Groff, Marlon James, and Paula Hawkins. (Paste)
British film director John Michael McDonagh—of the acclaimed films The Guard (2011) and Calvary (2014)—is set to adapt award-winning writer Percival Everett’s 2011 detective novel, Assumption, for film. No time frame for the project has yet been set. (Hollywood Reporter)
Today is the anniversary of Scottish poet Robert Burns’s birth, and the Burns Night tradition continues this evening. The tradition was first held in 1801, five years after Burns’s death, when friends of the poet held a traditional Scottish supper in his honor. Today, many people still hold Burns Night suppers, which typically include haggis and whiskey, and recitations of the poet’s work. (International Business Times)
Last week CNN launched a “social-first storytelling project” called Love Story, in which people call a phone number and record their love stories as a voicemail. CNN’s digital team then collects the audio and posts the stories on CNN.com, on Twitter at @hellolovestory, and on Soundcloud. (Digiday)
Book lovers, ogle with awe and envy this series of twenty-five stunning home libraries from Architectural Digest.
