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:
Hans Bolland, a Dutch translator of Russian literature, has refused to accept Russia’s Pushkin Medal because of his objections to President Vladimir Putin as a “big threat to freedom and peace on our planet.” Established in 1999, the Pushkin Medal is given by the Russian government to individuals for extraordinary achievements in arts and culture. (Moscow Times)
In response to a Facebook trend in which users post the ten books that have most shaped them, Facebook has released the hundred most mentioned titles gathered from 130,000 posts, with J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird topping the list. (Atlantic)
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has hired Rick Wolff to launch a line of business books as a senior executive editor. Wolff started Hachette’s Business Plus imprint, but was laid off in June when the publisher shuttered the imprint. (Publishers Weekly)
New York City bookstore Rizzoli, which closed its flagship store in Midtown Manhattan in April, will reopen next spring in the city’s NoMad neighborhood. Rizzoli executives conducted focus groups and looked at over 150 spaces to find the store’s new location. (Wall Street Journal)
And on the subject of Rizzoli, actress and designer Chloë Sevigny has inked a book deal with the bookstore’s parent company, Rizzoli Publications. The photography book project, Chloë Book, will be released next April. (GalleyCat)
The Unbinding the Book Exhibit will open later this month at the London Art Book Fair before traveling to San Francisco and New York City. The exhibit will feature pieces that challenge preconceptions about the book and how people read, including a book made of thermal paper that slowly blackens as it is read, and a trunk of clothing that is covered with the text of T. S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” (Guardian)
Speaking of T. S. Eliot, the house where the poet spent his childhood summers in Gloucester, Massachusetts, is up for sale for $1.3 million. (Los Angeles Times)
To mark the start of school, fall, and football season, the Millions rounds up books inspired by September.
