American Women Masters of the Short Story, the Pavement Bookworm, and More

by
Staff
8.20.15

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:

With the recent posthumous publication of Lucia Berlin’s collection of short stories, A Manual for Cleaning Women, Bridget Read considers the mastery in the tradition of American women short fiction writers, including Lydia Davis, Ann Beattie, and Lorrie Moore. (Literary Hub)

With the help of books, a former homeless man in South Africa has become an inspiration to many. Twenty-four-year-old Philani Dladla, also known as the Pavement Bookworm, overcame his drug addiction and created the Book Readers’ Club, a literacy group for underprivileged children in Johannesburg. (One.org)

In Australia, a promotion for McDonald’s Happy Meals is making one parent organization quite unhappy. The Happy Readers campaign provides the option for a child to choose a book with their Happy Meal instead of a toy. The Parents’ Jury—a group that promotes children’s healthy eating—wants the promotion banned, as it feels it pressures parents into buying their kids junk food: “As a parent it’s a lot harder to say ‘no’ to your child if they are asking for a book than it is when they want a ‘Minions’ toy,” said the group’s manager. (Los Angeles Times)

Here’s an example of an author embracing technology in his work: Ian Pears’s new novel, Arcadia, has such a complex plot structure—ten separate narrative strands, in fact—that he created an interactive app to help his readers understand the novel’s structure. (Guardian)

William Jay Smith, who served as poet laureate of the United States from 1968 to 1970, has died at age ninety-seven. Smith’s work was known for its “acuteness of observation and acuteness of craftsmanship,” the New York Times notes.  In addition to publishing several collections of poetry, Smith published books of criticism, European poetry in translation, memoirs, and verse for children in his lifetime.

At the Oyster Review, Tobias Carroll provides a literary field guide to New Jersey, listing works by authors who capture the spirit of the state from William Carlos Williams to Akhil Sharma.

Simon & Schuster is partnering with Hotels.com to offer free e-books to travelers who book through the website. So far, seven titles are available to Hotels.com users, and new titles will be added and rotated periodically. (Publishers Weekly)