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 winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize will be announced today. This is first year that American writers are eligible for the prestigious British award for fiction, and U.S. authors Karen Joy Fowler and Joshua Ferris are among the six short-listed finalists. The announcement will be made this evening at 5:30 pm eastern time; tune in to the G&A Blog to find out who takes the prize—and in the meantime, the Guardian talks with all six finalists about the stories behind each of their short-listed books.
With last week’s Nobel Prize in Literature announcement having come and gone, the New Yorker’s Philip Gourevitch makes a case for nonfiction, arguing that the historically overlooked genre deserves a Nobel.
In an effort to increase pressure on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters, Chinese authorities have detained one scholar and banned the books of eight writers. In addition to the poet Wang Zang, who was detained last week, the blacklist includes Taiwanese writer and film director Giddens Ko and Chinese-American historian Yu Ying-shih, among others. The Communist Party publication Global Times defended the ban in an op-ed yesterday: “If these advocators of political dissident culture define themselves as reformers, they should take responsibility for maintaining mainstream politics, not jeopardizing the country’s solidarity. If they insist on prioritizing opposing political ideas, they must prepare for pushback from society, which will be unpleasant in most cases.” (NPR)
Girls star and creator Lena Dunham’s highly anticipated essay collection, Not That Kind of Girl, released September 30, has sold roughly 38,000 print copies in its first week on sale, according to Nielson BookScan. The book has made news since 2012, when Dunham inked a $3.5 million advance from Random House for the collection. (Publishers Weekly)
The Guardian launched its “Diversity in Children’s Books Week” yesterday, starting with a list of the fifty best culturally diverse children’s books published from 1950 to the present day. Visit the Guardian website for the complete lineup of essays, interviews, readings, and excerpts that will be posted throughout the week.
The annual New York Comic Con, which packed Manhattan’s Javits Center over the weekend, was reportedly the largest U.S. Comic Con ever, bringing in over 150,000 people. (Publishers Weekly)
An upcoming film will explore the relationship between Thomas Wolfe and legendary Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins, a pair that “developed a tender, complex friendship that changed the lives of both men forever.” Genius, directed by British theater director Michael Grandage, will be based on A. Scott Berg’s biography of Perkins, Editor of Genius. Wolfe will be played by Jude Law, and Colin Firth will take on the role of Perkins. (Melville House)
