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.
“I spent so much of the early pandemic days in a holding pattern that I failed to realize that the pandemic had become reality—that our crisis mode urgently needed to be retooled for a longer journey, emotionally as much as logistically.” Novelist Lydia Kiesling recommends a parenting book that has helped her endure the pandemic. (New York Times Magazine)
“If you’re somebody that nobody’s criticizing, nobody’s taking you very seriously.” Lauren Oyler, who is well known for her hard-hitting literary criticism, prepares to release her own debut novel. (Cut)
“A poetic form doesn’t just exist in a structural sense, but also in an emotional/affective sense.” torrin a. greathouse talks to the Rumpus about inventing new poetic forms.
“I realize that abolition is not a thought exercise; we want to see every cage burn to the ground, but we cannot burn down with them.” Visual artist Havannah Tran recalls her introduction to community organizing and prison abolition. (Margins)
“How much license do I have to say what I believe about this person’s life and what I feel I know to be true?” Jenn Shapland discusses wrestling with the ethics of nonfiction while writing My Autobiography of Carson McCullers. (BOMB)
“Writing the truth of it was the hardest thing I had ever done.” Douglas A. Martin reflects on the true story that inspired his novella Wolf. (Lambda Literary Review)
Director Barry Jenkins has released a new trailer for The Underground Railroad. The Amazon Prime Video series is an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel of the same name. (Vulture)
Meanwhile, HBO Max executives are reportedly discussing the possibility of producing a new live-action Harry Potter series. (Hollywood Reporter)
