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:
This fall the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston will unveil a bronze statue of the American author created by sculptor Stefanie Rocknak. (GalleyCat)
The Guardian takes a look at the history of the Pelican imprint, newly relaunched by Penguin Random House.
Donna Tartt’s novel The Goldfinch is on track to become the bestselling Pulitzer Prize–winning book in five years following a sales jump in the wake of the prize’s announcement. (Publishers Weekly)
Wendy Doniger, author of the controversial book The Hindus: An Alternative History, explains the events and laws in India that allowed her award-winning book to be pulled from the shelves in that country. (New York Review of Books)
A recent study ordered by Britain’s Department for Culture, Media, and Sport reveals that going to the library can increase a person’s happiness as much as a £1,359 (or roughly $1,878) pay raise. (Bustle)
Poet Camille Rankine addresses a perceived prejudice against poetry with purpose. (Harriet)
Meanwhile, Slate features an essay by Mary Gaitskill excerpted from an expanded edition of Carl Wilson’s Let's Talk About Love, concerning the earnestness of Céline Dion and critical severity toward the uncool.
Writer Caleb Crain examines descriptions of gay sex in novels. (New Yorker)
The Washington Post explains the unlikely success of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, a 696-page tome written by French economist Thomas Piketty and recently available in English through Harvard University Press.
Poet Lee Klein discusses what several well-known American novelists with the first name Richard have in common, other than their name. (Full Stop)
