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 Swedish Women’s Lobby and publisher Albert Bonniers announced that they will distribute a free copy of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s essay “We Should All Be Feminists” to every sixteen-year-old in Sweden. “When I was sixteen, I didn’t think I knew what the word ‘feminist’ meant,” said Adichie. “But I was a feminist. And I hope that the sixteen-year-olds that will read this book in Sweden will also decide that they’re feminists. Mostly, I hope very soon that one day we will not need to be feminists. Because we will live in a world that is truly just and equal.” (Guardian)
A collection of rare books—including a Gutenberg Bible, a copy of Isaac Newton’s Opticks, and a prayer book signed by King Henry VIII—will be sold this week at Sotheby’s. The collection belonged to Robert S. Pirie, who was a member of the world’s oldest society of bibliophiles, the Roxburghe Club. (Wall Street Journal)
“I’m a big believer that the tension produced by making something from a place of discomfort, instability, and not knowing is what creativity, in fact, is.” Adam Fitzgerald interviews poet Dawn Lundy Martin about the black avant-garde and her latest collection of poetry, Life in a Box is a Pretty Life. (LitHub)
In the latest installment of the Millions’s “Year in Reading” series, Joyce Carol Oates shares her favorites from 2015, including the late C. K. Williams’s Selected Later Poems and Tracy Daugherty’s biography of Joan Didion, The Last Love Song.
At the Washington Post, Michael Cavna argues that graphic artist and “narrative architect” Chris Ware has set a new precedent for magazine covers with his multimedia cover for the latest issue of the New Yorker. The cover includes audio from This American Life producer Ira Glass, along with original music and animation. “[Ware] remains trained at detecting all those false walls that allegedly segregate the visual and verbal sensory experiences…. So the transition between print and moving pixel…represents no high wall or true barrier.”
“I, we, don’t need to read more diverse books—we’re reading them, we’ve written them, we’ve lived them. We’ve been here. There’s an audience for #WeNeedDiverseBooks, just like there’s an audience for #BlackLivesMatter: and it isn’t us, white male minority, it’s you. You need to read and publish more diverse books and writers. You need to make space, to do the work, to be the change you wish to see, etc. etc. etc. I already know I matter.” Poet Morgan Parker writes a letter to the American literary community. (Harriet)
Second-quarter sales at Barnes & Noble are down 4.5 percent compared to last year. CEO Ron Boire attributes the drop to issues with its newly revamped website as well as to store closures. (Publishers Weekly)
With the help of a hammer and a Star Trek quote, Mary Norris—the New Yorker’s reigning comma queen and query proofreader—discusses how to split an infinitive.
