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:
MacKenzie Bezos—wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos—posted a critical one-star review of journalist Brad Stone’s The Everything Store, a biography that examines Amazon’s business culture. (New York Times)
Mariel Hemingway explained to Salon that her family didn’t speak of her grandfather Ernest’s suicide.
For National Novel Writing Month, on the podcast the Complete Guide to Everything, hosts Tim Daniels and Tom Reynolds discuss how to write a novel. (Splitsider)
Meanwhile, the Barnes & Noble Book Blog lists eight best-selling titles that originated during National Novel Writing Month, including Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl.
And NPR’s Linda Holmes weighs in on NaNoWriMo: “In some cases, it must be said, they are doing everything except writing.”
Scholar Dr. George Walkden argues that the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf has been misconstrued for hundreds of years. (Independent)
“If you can fail from success, you can also be a very successful failure.” Looking at the careers of F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Baldwin, and others, the Guardian considers the perils of success.
Memoirist Joyce Maynard shares her thoughts on writing about difficult things, and the writing advice given to her by J. D. Salinger. (Medium)
