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:
A piece at the Economist looks at the revived interest in Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, who was killed eighty years ago by Francisco Franco’s Nationalist rebel forces. In the past couple months, García Lorca has inspired both a London-based flamenco performance that tells the poet’s story through dance, and an updated version of his play Yerma.
As part of a New York Times interactive project to document literature that captures the spirit of various U.S. cities and regions, reporters and editors have recommended books Americans should read to learn more about these specific parts of the country. The featured books include novels, memoirs, histories, and even children’s literature.
Known to disarm his readers with stories that delve into the horror of uncertainty, as well as his dark history in the LDS church, fiction writer Brian Evenson talks with the White Review about religious apostasy, the unspeakable, and narrative uncertainty. “You realize you’ve been living in a world as if one thing was in fact something else…. I want my stories to put you into a place where the reality of the world is breaking down or collapsing—both inside the story and for you as a reader.”
Short story writer Kelly Link talks about her acclaimed collection Get in Trouble, and the influence of Shirley Jackson’s story “The Summer People” on her work. “I liked the idea of writing a story where all the play between Jackson’s story and mine would come from the reader, rather than from me.” (Longreads)
Online retail giant Amazon has publicly revealed its latest Boeing 767 jet plane, part of a fleet of leased aircrafts the company uses to deliver its merchandise across the country. Within two years, Amazon expects to have forty cargo jets connecting its package fulfillment centers. (Seattle Times)
“We’re creating a real sense of narrative and of cause and effect throughout our lives that in a way life mirrors art. Stories exist with the kind of logic they have because it’s a logic that we need in our own lives in order to make sense of them.” Nonfiction writer Nadja Spiegelman discusses her new memoir, I’m Supposed to Protect You From All This, which details her relationship with her famous graphic novelist father, Art Spiegelman. (Barnes & Noble Review)
Following Khizr Khan’s speech at last week’s Democratic National Convention—Khan spoke about the death of his son, U.S. Army Captain Humayun S. M. Khan, in Iraq—a pamphlet-sized version of the U.S. Constitution has become the number two best-selling book on Amazon. Khan held up a copy of the U.S. Constitution during his speech, as he directed remarks at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for his threat to ban Muslims from immigrating to the United States. (Los Angeles Times)
At the Ploughshares blog, Bengali writer Angshuman Das describes her love affair with the English language, and how she came to embrace writing in a language that is not her mother tongue.
