Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—publishing reports, literary dispatches, academic announcements, and more—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today’s stories.
The activist coalition Writers Against Trump is hosting a series of post-election conversations today. Throughout the day several indie bookstores, including Politics and Prose Bookstore and City Lights Books, will host regional virtual events. In the evening writers Paul Auster, Salman Rushdie, Rebecca Solnit, and Natasha Trethewey will participate in a national virtual event.
“I am a very stubborn person. I wanted to look deeper. My choice was to turn towards them, not away.” Talia Lavin discusses investigating and writing about online hate groups, despite harassment and threats of violence. (Guernica)
“What I’m trying to do these days, in the story form, is surprise myself—get out beyond my conscious mind and what I already believe and perform a sort of rowdy, joyful blurt.” George Saunders warns against forcing meaning and metaphor. (New Yorker)
“Clark’s photos also do the vital work of reminding us that the central participants in this whirlwind of a story were, at the time, young people: teenagers, who were more than just cogs in the machinery of a place and its history and its obsession.” Hanif Abdurraqib writes on Robert Clark’s photographs of the town and people behind Friday Night Lights. (Paris Review Daily)
“It didn’t necessarily heal me to write out these experiences, but I see it helping other people, and that means something.” Maggie Smith discusses her latest book, Keep Moving, and challenges the idea of writing as catharsis. (Rumpus)
“Our ability to thrive as individuals is dependent on our community thriving.” Robin Wall Kimmerer shares essential lessons from her studies of the plant world. (Believer)
Nick Ripatrazone highlights six new and forthcoming poetry books, including Valzhyna Mort’s Music for the Dead and Resurrected and Margaret Atwood’s Dearly. (Millions)
Pierce Alquist recommends ten works of Korean literature in translation. (Book Riot)
