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:
Google and Barnes & Noble have joined forces to contend with Amazon, taking aim on same-day delivery service of books. Starting today, book buyers in Manhattan, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area will have access to same-day deliveries from local Barnes & Noble stores through Google Shopping, the Internet giant's year-old online shopping and delivery service. Amazon announced Wednesday that it plans to expand its own same-day shipping program from four cities to ten. (New York Times, Fortune)
A children’s book published in 2011 advocating gun rights gained attention this week when it was featured on Stephen Colbert’s Colbert Report. The book, My Parents Open Carry, was coauthored by Michigan open-carry advocates Brian Jeffs and Nathan Nephew in an effort to "normalize the idea of carrying a gun" for children. (MSNBC)
John Freeman, the former editor of Granta and former president of the National Book Critics Circle, talks to Publishers Weekly about launching his new anthology series, Freeman’s.
Teachers and local officials at a library in Washington, D.C., will be giving away more than 2,000 books to children this weekend. The books are being provided by First Book, a D.C.–based nonprofit. (Washington Post)
Meanwhile, a bookstore in Augusta, Georgia, is helping to build a library for a local arts school. Throughout this month, customers at the Book Tavern will be able to purchase books to be donated to the Jessye Norman School of the Arts, which allows students—many of whom are economically disadvantaged—to study fine arts. (Augusta Chronicle)
Carrie Brownstein of Portlandia will complete Nora Ephron's unfinished screenplay for Lost in Austen, a movie based on the eponymous British miniseries about a Brooklynite transported to the fictional world of Pride and Prejudice. (NPR)
E-book subscription service Scribd has redesigned its browser in an effort to make online book-browsing more like a physical bookstore experience. The new browser features virtual shelves, guest-curated collections, and staff picks. (GalleyCat)
Meanwhile, the New York Times debates the value of paid subscription-based e-book services like Scribd, Oyster, and Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited, the newest addition to such platforms vying for the title “the Netflix of Books.”
