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.
The Guardian visits the office of #Merky Books, a popular new imprint of Cornerstone/Penguin Random House U.K. that launched in July 2018. Curated by the rapper Stormzy, #Merky publishes a wide range of genres and focuses on acquiring manuscripts by writers from underrepresented communities.
Poet, publisher, and politician Rebecca Wolff shares how she balances her various positions. The author of four books of poetry, she is also the editor of Fence and a recently elected alderperson in Hudson, New York. Wolff says these roles have more to do with one another than some might assume: “So much of what I’m experiencing about politics is relational and has to do with being able to carry the weight of people’s confusion and their hope for change.” (Creative Independent)
Jeff VanderMeer talks to Literary Hub about pushing the boundaries of narration and imagining the voices of animals in his latest novel, Dead Astronauts. “If you use the same narrative structure too often, you’re not making any progress in your own self-education.”
VanderMeer recently answered Ten Questions from Poets & Writers Magazine.
NBC News revisits the twenty-four Lambda Literary Award–winning titles from 2019. William Johnson, the deputy director of Lambda Literary, notes, “Queer writers are changing the master narrative.”
Ronald K. L. Collins retells the story of the New York Times review of On the Road that helped catapult Jack Kerouac into the public consciousness. (Washington Post)
Nina MacLaughlin discusses imagining the voices of the women in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in her own book, Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung, and asking readers to look closely at the details of sexual violence that his text elides. (Electric Literature)
MacLaughlin answered Ten Questions from Poets & Writers Magazine in November.
The New Yorker shares its favorite nonfiction titles of 2019 highlighting various memoirs and books of reportage.
The New York Times recommends six long books to take home over the holidays including Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko.
