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:
In a surprise move, Random House has decided to forego any claim to the e-book rights for several titles by William Styron published before e-book rights were mentioned in standard publishing contracts. Although Random House states that this one acquiesance is an exception, many in the industry wonder if "the Styron case could lead to a flood of other authors or their estates moving e-books to separate digital publishers." (New York Times)
New York Magazine managed to solicit a series of impromptu volcano poems from some of the celebrities in attendance at last week's Academy of American Poets benefit.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst hosted the tenth annual Juniper Literary Festival this past weekend to celebrate a decade of publishing jubilat, its award-winning literary journal.
A New York rock band made an album setting Paul Celan's Holocaust poetry to music. (Jewish Chronicle)
Agatha Christie's writing process was "utterly deranged," according to Slate.
A former Maine schoolteacher is about to set off on a country-wide tour to drum up support for the creation of a national Dead Poets Remembrance Day. (Associated Press)
Amazon recently awarded a series of grants to nonprofit author and publisher groups, including Poets & Writers, Inc.
Around one-hundred-thirty thousand people attended the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this past weekend. (Reuters)
A new study revealed that parents are inadvertantly turning kids off books by playing "too much of a role in deciding which books their child is going to read." (Guardian)
