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:
The new Dostoyevsky metro station in Moscow features giant murals of scenes from the author's work, including a scene from Crime and Punishment in which two women are murdered with an axe. About eighty people a year kill themselves in the Moscow metro system, according to the Guardian, so it's not suprising that the murals are freaking some people out.
The movie based on Eat, Pray, Love, the bestselling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, is coming in August. Starring Julia Roberts, the film will also launch an array of product tie-ins, including jewelry, perfume, clothing, and furnishings. (Los Angeles Times)
Since it went on sale a few weeks ago, Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington D.C. has seen a variety of potential buyers tempted by the prospect of being "an influential tastemaker at the intersection of the nation’s political and literary worlds." (New York Times)
Andrew Phillips has been named president of Penguin International, replacing David Davidar. (Star)
Barnes & Noble and Amazon are both offering refunds and store credit to customers who bought a Nook or Kindle, respectively, before the prices dropped this week. (Wall Street Journal) In related news, Borders is now bundling the Kobo with a twenty-dollar gift card. (Publishers Weekly)
Apple sold its three millionth iPad on Monday, "just 80 days after the touchscreen tablet computer first became available in US stores." (AFP)
Barbara Kingsolver's recent Orange prize win has boosted sales of her novel The Lacuna by over 250 percent, according to the Bookseller.
As the group stage of the World Cup draws to a close in South Africa, the Poetry Foundation takes a look at the soccer (er, football) verse of Diane Ackerman, Simon Armitage, and the Scottish poet Don Paterson, among others.
