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:
Barnes & Noble has discontinued its Nook Simple Touch e-reader. (Shelf Awareness)
In what should only be the plot to a political thriller, journalist Luke Harding, author of the Snowden Files—the book published this month about former NSA contractor Edward Snowden—reported in the Guardian yesterday that as he wrote the book, words mysteriously disappeared from his manuscript onscreen. "The paragraph I had just written began to self-delete," he says. "The cursor moved rapidly from the left, gobbling text. I watched my words vanish."
For those planning to attend the annual AWP conference in Seattle next week—which will bring in an estimated 15,000 people—check out Roxane Gay’s instructions on how to swim in a sea of writers.
In a recent interview with Elle, author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie discusses her writing process, fashion, cooking, and what feminism means to her: “It means that I am present in the world,” she says, “and that I realize that there is a problem with the way we’ve constructed gender.”
Meanwhile, over at Guernica, Jonathan Lee talks to Rachel Kushner, author of the National Book Award finalist The Flamethrowers, about ideas of femininity and masculinity in literary fiction.
For readers with an entrepreneurial bent, Microsoft cofounder and business magnate Bill Gates has created his own virtual bookshelf on his website. (GalleyCat)
Jhumpa Lahiri, author most recently of the novel The Lowland, says goodbye to Mavis Gallant. (The New Yorker)
