An Open Letter to AWP, Andrew Wylie's Hatred of Amazon Publishing, and More

by
Staff
3.19.14

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:

Becky Tuch, editor of the Review Review, writes an open letter to the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, indicting the organization for a lack of discussion at February's annual conference about the desperate economic situation of many adjunct instructors. (Beyond the Margins)

Meanwhile, novelist John Winters considers the plight of the financially struggling writer in response to the recently released anthology MFA vs. NYC: The Two Cultures of American Fiction (n+1) and George Orwell’s 1946 essay “Why I Write.” (Cognoscenti)

Melville House considers literary agent Andrew Wylie’s heated criticisms of Amazon’s publishing ventures.

Novelist Joyce Carol Oates reviews Lorrie Moore’s new collection of short stories, Bark, for the New York Review of Books.

After ninety years, HarperCollins will publish J. R. R. Tolkien’s translation of the 11th-century epic poem Beowulf in May. (Guardian)

NPR interviews Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about film adaptations of her novels Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah, and discusses the author's feelings on feminism.

Poet Anita Skeen and printmaking artist Laura Delind have collaborated on The Unauthorized Audubon, a collection of poems and prints that examine the world of birds. (Great Lakes Echo)

The winners from several state-level Poetry Out Loud competitions are being announced this week. Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, along with state agencies, the contest allows high school students, such as Rhode Island’s champion Yesenia Rego, to compete by memorizing and reciting famous poems before an audience; national finals will be held in Washington, D. C. in late April.