Duotrope's Financial Move, Holiday Gifts for Writers, and More

by
Evan Smith Rakoff
12.4.12

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:

Digital Book World reports e-book revenue growth is slowing.

On his blog, Jonathan Crowl measures the ramifications of writers' resource Duotrope's move from free service to paid subscription.

Meanwhile, Melville House looks at Who Pays Writers?, a new Tumblr created to shed light on the standard pay for freelance writing assignments.

Speaking of riches, Old South Church in Boston is considering auctioning one its two copies of the 1640-edition Bay Psalm Book. It's considered the first book printed in North America, and could fetch around twenty-five million dollars. (Huffington Post)

The Oxford American is dead. Long live The Oxford American.New York Times critic Dwight Garner parses the legacy of the recently embattled Southern magazine. [Note: Oxford American's new editor Roger D. Hodge is interviewed in the November/December 2012 Poets & Writers Magazine.]

With the release of the Louise Glück omnibus, Poems 1962–2012, out last month from Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Michael Robbins considers the life's work of the major American poet. (Los Angeles Review of Books)

Brazillian poet and theorist Décio Pignatari has died at his home in São Paulo. He was eighty-five. (Harriet)

Hillel Italie investigates Small Demons—the new literary search engine. (Salon)

Slate found a pictogram created for Ernest Hemingway by his pals as he recovered from injuries during World War I.

The Millions features useful holiday gifts ideas for writers.