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:
The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin has acquired a collection of books from Gabriel García Márquez’s library. The collection includes signed books given to García Márquez from Nobel Prize winners Toni Morrison, Orhan Pamuk, and Pablo Neruda, as well as books gifted to him from world leaders. (Los Angeles Times)
The late Harper Lee’s lawyer has plans to turn the author’s hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, into a tourist destination to honor Lee’s legacy. The proposed plan includes constructing a museum, creating replicas of homes in To Kill a Mockingbird, and renovating Lee’s house on West Avenue. (New York Times)
Merriam-Webster Dictionary is urging its users to stop looking up the word “fascism” to prevent it from becoming the word of the year. (Guardian)
Meanwhile, the Oakland-based website Dictionary.com’s word of the year is “xenophobia.” (Smithsonian)
It turns out even ghostwriters sometimes have ghostwriters. Author Michael Hafford reflects on his time spent working for a memoir ghostwriter. (Literary Hub)
Now that it’s December, Flavorwire recommends ten books to “throw light on the darkest month of the year.”
Do you love books so much you want to…drink them? Why not, right? The Columbia Room bar in Washington, D.C., serves a cocktail made with actual pages of hundred-year-old books. “The old books are combined with Armagnac, vintage PX sherry, a porcini cordial, and eucalyptus to create a sweet dessert drink with a ‘savory edge.’ The cocktail is served in a flask that’s placed inside a hollowed-out book.” (Washingtonian)
