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:
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, which owns book publisher HarperCollins, is considering splitting into two companies, dividing its publishing operations from its film and television divisions. (NPR)
In a letter to the Department of Justice, mid-sized publishers and distributors (Abrams, Chronicle, Grove/Atlantic, Chicago Review Press, New Directions, Norton, Perseus Books Group, Consortium, Rowman & Littlefield, and Workman) warned that without the agency model, "Amazon will have the ability to price whole categories of e-books below cost in a way that is likely to drive out competition from other, less deep-pocketed e-booksellers as well as brick and mortar booksellers." (Shelf Awareness)
Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Russo's new book, Interventions, intended as a tribute to the printed page, is not for sale in an electronic version. The work also contains full-color prints of paintings by artist Kate Russo, the novelist's daughter. (TeleRead)
Print magazine gathered a collection of visual art by famous writers, including work by Arthur Rimbaud, Edgar Allen Poe, Sylvia Plath, and Dylan Thomas.
Niall Leonard, the husband of Fifty Shades of Grey author E. L. James, will publish a young-adult novel this fall. (Los Angeles Times)
Meanwhile, Fifty Shames of Earl Grey author Andrew Shaffer reports Tuesdays with Morrie's Mitch Albom is not pleased with an onslaught of "racy" media. (Huffington Post)
Novelist and essayist Meghan Daum answers an English teacher's request to write his students about success: "Success is one of those things that you don't always recognize right away. It can sneak up on you. Like growing taller or stronger, it's one of those things you notice after the fact. And that's why it's so important to believe in it."
Lonesome George, the last survivor of an ancient subspecies of giant tortoise, has died in the Galapagos Islands (Time); and poet X. J. Kennedy has memorialized George in the pages of the Atlantic.
