2013 VIDA Count Released; Amtrak Launches Residency Program; and More

by
Staff
2.24.14

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 2013 VIDA Count—which tallies gender inequality in book reviewing and literary journals—was released today.

Amtrak is in the early stages of launching a residency program for writers aboard cross-country trains. (The Wire)

Private investment management firm G Asset Management has offered to buy 51 percent of Barnes & Noble. (GalleyCat)

A group called the Wikipedia Books Project is raising money to publish the complete English Wikipedia as a book—or more specifically a thousand books, each of them twelve hundred pages long. (Melville House)

Fiction writer Lorrie Moore, whose most recent short story collection, Bark, will be released tomorrow by Knopf, is profiled today in the Millions

Andrew O’Hagan, the writer originally hired to ghostwrite the autobiography of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, writes about his experience working with Assange in an essay for the London Review of Books.

Several bestselling authors, including Mitch Albom, Suzanne Collins, James McBride, J. K. Rowling, and Amy Tan will donate books to the Philippines in an effort to resurrect school libraries affected by super typhoon Yolanda last year. (ABS-CBN)

February is National Typewriter Month, and in celebration Mental Floss has compiled a brief history of the iconic writing machine.