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.
Twenty translation projects, representing eighteen countries and eleven languages, have been awarded English PEN’s flagship translation prize, PEN Translates. Launched in 2012, PEN Translates helps U.K. publishers cover the costs of translating new works of any genre into English.
Jenny Odell talks to Electric Literature about her debut nonfiction book, How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, and learning to engage with both online and in-person communities with intention in a capitalist society. “It’s a book for someone who feels too disassembled to think or act meaningfully.”
At Granta, Lucy Scholes reflects on the life and writings of publisher-turned-author Diana Athill, who died at the age of 101 in January this year.
Kali Fajardo-Anstine and Tommy Pico exchange emails and reflect on family history, writing process, and the pleasures of performance. (BOMB)
Tommy Pico recently answered Ten Questions from Poets & Writers Magazine.
Jonathan Blitzer recommends the short stories of Juan Carlos Onetti, an Uruguayan writer whose “dense and layered” prose Blitzer compares to Faulkner. (New Yorker)
“I do find it reassuring that, even though we won’t be here, the planet will be. The planet will survive us.” Liz Breazeale talks to the Rumpus about her debut story collection, Extinction Events, and examining the climate crisis and patriarchy through fiction.
Freeman’s contributors select a favorite book from the year. Jennifer Egan turns to the nineteenth century and recommends The Domestic Manners of the Americans by Frances Trollope. Louise Erdrich picks All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews. (Literary Hub)
Jenny Offill reflects on her year in reading. Her first highlight: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency by Akiko Busch. (Millions)
Editor’s note: There will be no Daily News next week, December 23 through 27. Coverage will resume December 30.
