Celebrities Release Poetry CD, Los Angeles Libraries Face Budget Cuts, and More

by Staff
3.24.10

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:

Los Angeles libraries are about to feel the brunt of the economic downturn as city officials vote on library staff cuts and reduced hours. (Los Angeles Times)

Scientists in South Korea "have developed 3-D technology for books that makes characters literally leap off the page." (Reuters UK)

A cast of celebrities is set to release Poetic License, a collection of (very) dramatic readings of popular and classic poems. Hear Catherine Zeta-Jones and Cynthia Nixon read their selections at Entertainment Weekly.

LA's legendary Arundel Books is moving north to secluded Vashon Island in Washington State to become part of the new Center for Sustainable Book Arts, "a unique organization that will provide workshops and classes in book arts and literature plus a retail space that is set to open in July 2010." (Publishers Weekly)

A British Airways cabin crew strike is causing major disruptions to this years Bologna Book Fair, which features over twelve hundred exhibitors and publishers from over sixty countries. (Bookseller)

Some Australian publishers are "playing catch-up" after a sluggish response to advancements in digital publishing like the Kindle and soon-to-be-released iPad. (Sydney Morning Herald)

According to a new book, one of Josef Stalin's most notorious henchman, Vyacheslav Molotov (you may have heard of his cocktails), was a "bookworm" devoted to literature and poetry. He was a collecter of Osip Mandelstam's work even as he sent the poet himself to die in the Gulag. (Bloomberg)

The Christian Science Monitor has compiled a nonfiction reading list to help those hoping to "gain a wider grasp of the American healthcare reform debate."