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:
Next spring, Borough Press will publish a new collection of short stories inspired by Charlotte Brontë. Each original story in the anthology, which is titled Reader, I Married Him, will begin with that famous line from Jane Eyre. The 2016 publication will mark the bicentenary of Brontë’s birth. (Bookseller)
At Salon, poet Elizabeth Alexander, who read at president Obama’s 2008 inauguration ceremony, discusses her new memoir, The Light of the World, and the process of writing through grief.
Meanwhile, in an interview with NPR’s Terry Gross, Toni Morrison talks about regret, her new novel God Help the Child, and how the writing process heals and protects: “Nothing matters more in the world or in my body or anywhere when I’m writing. It is dangerous because I’m thinking up dangerous, difficult things, but it is also extremely safe for me to be in that place.”
It is a lesser-known fact that from 1985 to 1987, global bestselling author Haruki Murakami wrote very short stories for advertisements in men’s lifestyle magazines. (Open Culture)
“One could argue that the American dream is the subject of every American novel, a sort of blurry-eyed national obsession with having it all and coming out on top, or in the case of most plot-driven literature, the failures and breakdowns in that quasi-noble pursuit.” At the Guardian, Christopher Bolin considers the depiction of the American dream—or nightmare—in contemporary novels.
A new bookstore in Fort Myers, Florida, strictly sells books by local and self-published authors. Unlike traditional chain stores or independent stores, the Gulf Coast Bookstore allows self-published authors to rent shelf space in three-month increments and receive 100 percent of every sale. (Publishers Weekly)
“A physical book makes it possible to fend off the nausea roused by the electronic despotism we’ve let into our lives.” In an essay for the New Republic, William Giraldi defends the necessity of physical books.
Sometimes it’s difficult to remember the names of characters or definitions of words created for specific works of fiction. Luckily, a new app called Fictionary allows users to access book-specific dictionaries to help them keep track of characters, terms, and places created by the book’s author. The app is free and works on most e-readers. (GalleyCat)
