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:
Alt-right personality Milo Yiannopoulos has announced he will self-publish his memoir, Dangerous, under his own Dangerous Books label, as part of his new media venture, Milo Inc. Yiannopoulos also announced he will sue Simon & Schuster for $10 million for dropping their contract to publish his memoir back in February, following the release of a video in which the commentator appears to condone pedophilia. (Guardian)
“The [poets of today] have left it to pop stars to give people the poetry they really want: lyrical language charged with rhythm, rhyme and metaphor.” Adam Bradley argues that the most popular music of the times—the pop of Bruno Mars and Ed Sheeran and rap of Kendrick Lamar, for instance—is also the most popular poetry of the times. (Los Angeles Times)
Children’s book author and illustrator Peter Spier died last month at age eighty-nine. Spier was known for his meticulous, vivid drawings in the books Circus! and Noah’s Ark, for which he won a Caldecott Medal. (New York Times)
Last week more than five hundred librarians gathered in Washington, D.C. for the American Library Association’s annual National Library Legislative Day, where librarians discuss key issues, talk to legislators, and visit their representatives. This year, the key issues were funding—President Trump’s budget proposes eliminating the Institute of Museum and Library Services—as well as the importance of supporting net neutrality and protecting citizens’ privacy from government surveillance. (Publishers Weekly)
“The words’ histories, their original contexts, their authorial intents—none of that much matters in the breezy world of Women Who Work. It is in that sense a deeply postmodern book; all it’s missing is the irony.” At the Atlantic, Megan Garber considers how Ivanka Trump uses the words of other women, such as Toni Morrison and Jane Goodall, in her new book, Women Who Work.
Unable to read or write at his parents’ home, Kent Russell chronicles the National Hockey League playoffs. (n+1)
“She was extremely cultivated—and yet, for example, whenever we went to the theater or opera together, she would almost invariably fall asleep as soon as the curtain rose.” John Heilpern remembers Jean Stein, a writer and figure in the literary world and Hollywood, who committed suicide on April 30. (Vanity Fair)
“I always thought of the horror of history being what you know, but by the end of the book I started to have the sense that the even worse horror of history is the horror that you don’t know.” At Guernica, David Grann discusses writing and researching his most recent book, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.
