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:
At the New York Times, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Alice Walker and acclaimed Irish writer Colm Tóibín discuss the adaptation of their novels—The Color Purple and Brooklyn, respectively—for the screen.
Speaking of adaptations, the new five-hour stage adaptation of Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño’s novel 2666 opens February 6 at the Goodman Theater in Chicago. The play’s director, Robert Falls, discusses the arduous decade-long process of staging the nearly nine-hundred-page novel. (New York Times)
Fatima Naoot, a prominent Egyptian poet and former parliamentary candidate, has been sentenced to three years in prison for blasphemy against Islam. In a Facebook post from October 2014, Naoot criticized the slaughtering of sheep during the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha. Naoot’s jail sentence will begin immediately, but she plans to appeal her sentence from behind bars. “I’m not sad about the sentencing as I don’t care about going to jail. I’m sad that the efforts of reformists have been wasted,” said Naoot. (Middle East Eye)
“The written beauty of a character is political, even more so for a black woman in prose who, as a character, has traditionally existed in the margins. In the American imagination the black woman, whether light skinned or dark, is already a sexualized entity, a character upon which so many stereotypes are projected. But as a black woman writing these characters, I need to write beyond the stereotypes, expose their idiocy one page at a time.” At Literary Hub, fiction writer Morgan Jerkins examines the difficulty of describing blackness. “My hope is to create imperfect, multitudinous black women who are more in tune with themselves than their audiences.”
A week after Scholastic withdrew publication of the children’s book A Birthday Cake for George Washington following complaints about the book’s depiction of “happy” slaves, the publisher has now drawn criticism from free-speech groups. Groups including PEN American Center and the National Coalition Against Censorship assert that Scholastic’s decision pandered to critics and amounts to self-censorship. Scholastic defended its choice to withdraw the book title, noting the decision was “not in response to criticism, but entirely and purposefully because this title did not meet our publishing standards.” (Washington Post)
Poet and Gonzaga University professor Tod Marshall has been named the fourth poet laureate of Washington State. Marshall will spend his two-year term spreading awareness and appreciation of poetry through public readings, workshops, and lectures. Marshall is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Bugle (Canarium, 2014). (Gonzaga.edu)
And finally, in dad news, comedians Sam Reece, Mark Vigeant, and Drew Luster have launched a Kickstarter campaign to publish a coffee-table book of “dad poems,” titled “Leaves of Grass I Trimmed With My Mower.” Reece and Luster—both members of the Upright Citizens Brigade comedy school—each created “dad” characters named Zeke and Ralph, and performed the poems in various venues in New York City before coming up with the idea for the coffee-table book. (Mashable)
