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:
During an interview with the Telegraph about his new legal thriller, best-selling crime author John Grisham made controversial statements regarding the U.S. judicial system’s “too harsh” sentencing policies of those who view child pornography. The comments come on the heels of best-selling author Kirk Nesset’s recent arrest for possession of child pornography. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
San Francisco independent press McSweeney’s will become a nonprofit publishing house within a year. McSweeney’s was founded in 1998 by Dave Eggers, and publishes books, the monthly magazine the Believer, and the literary journal McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern. (SF Gate)
Adobe Digital Editions has come under scrutiny for recent data breaches. The widely-used reading app has been collecting reader information and sending it back to Adobe. The American Library Association has responded to the data breaches stating that they are working with Adobe to correct the issue by next week. (Melville House)
Late crime novelist Elmore Leonard, also known as the “Dickens of Detroit,” chose just before his death last year to house his archives at the University of South Carolina instead of the Motor City. The decision was made after Leonard visited the campus, which houses the manuscripts of writers such as Ernest Hemingway and George V. Higgins. Leonard’s collection, which is expected to be accessible within eighteen months, will include over four-hundred fifty manuscript drafts, along with typewriters, scrapbooks, and other ephemera from the writer’s career. (NPR)
John Keats, William Wordsworth, and Charles Lamb meet for dinner in poet Stanley Plumly’s new book, The Immortal Evening. Michael Dirda describes the book as “wide-ranging, digressive, lyrical, [and] meditative” in a review at the Washington Post.
Actor and Choose Your Own Autobiography author Neil Patrick Harris talks to the New York Times about Gone Girl, Steve Martin, and the books that make him laugh and cry.
Moby-Dick fans: The trailer is here for the new Ron Howard film, In the Heart of the Sea. The movie is based on the eponymous nonfiction book by Nathaniel Philbrick, which tells the real tale of the whaleship Essex—the vessel that inspired the Pequod and its voyage in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. Philbrick’s work won the National Book Award in 2000. (Wall Street Journal)
“Pose before prose!” Electric Literature has created a fun infographic of yoga poses for writers. Now you can de-stress with poses like the “Plot Twist,” the “Extended Metaphor,” and the “Hiding From Student Emails—aka The Adjunct."
