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 response to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly’s claim on Monday that “the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War,” Ta-Nehisi Coates recommends five books to “make you less stupid about the Civil War [2].” (Atlantic)

“Subjective tastes, the reasoning behind a low grade or a rejection letter, is, for certain kinds of people, a well-disguised and acceptable form of executing one’s biases. Our idea of what is ‘literary’ or ‘intellectual’ derives from somewhere, has a history.” Marcos Santiago Gonsalez argues that the creative writing academy needs to do more than accept students of color [3]—it needs to examine the sensibility and style of writing presented as good. (Electric Literature)

Meanwhile, Erik Gleibermann tracks the rise of Spanish-language curriculum in MFA programs [4], and visits the country’s only fully bilingual program, run by the University of Texas in El Paso. (New York Times)

“So this is how you and I have been walking toward each other maybe this entire time.” Poet Patrick Rosal writes about being mistaken for the help at the National Book Awards ceremony [5]. (Literary Hub)

Warner Brothers will release a film adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s novel Crazy Rich Asians [6] in August. (Deadline)

“What sort of citizen are you on paper? Privilege is being a little more permanent than others, being allowed to linger more in a place without people paying much attention to you. But when you’re not of privilege, you have to be more careful.” Deepak Unnikrishnan talks about temporariness [7], living in Abu Dhabi, and his debut novel, Temporary People. (Guernica)

Writer Jane Juska has died at age eighty-four [8]. Juska was known for her memoir A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance, which was adapted into a play. (SF Gate)

“I know I’m supposed to care about timelessness, but I don’t…. I think that it’s an unreasonable pressure to put on poets, and I think those poems are boring. They’re not really reflective of anything. Poems have always had time stamps.” Morgan Parker advocates for writing about the current moment [9]. (Creative Independent)