In Memory of Philip Levine, $300 Million Rare Book Donation, and More

by
Staff
2.17.15

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:

Former U.S. poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize–winner Philip Levine died Saturday at age eighty-seven. Levine was known for his sharp observational style and matter-of-fact poems about industrial Detroit. Over the past fifty years, Levine published twenty-four books. New York Times critic Dwight Garner writes that Levine’s death is a “serious blow for American poetry, in part because he so vividly evoked the drudgery and hardships of working-class life in America, and in part because this didn’t pull his poetry down into brackishness.”

In memory of Levine, read a Q&A with the poet from the March/April 2012 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, and listen to a recording of him reading his poem “The Mercy.”

Princeton University graduate William H. Scheide donated $300 million worth of rare books to the school. Scheide’s collection of 2,500 books includes a 1455 Gutenberg Bible and a speech autographed by Abraham Lincoln in 1856. Scheide’s donation is the single largest in Princeton’s history. (NJ)

Anxiety over the decline of the English language is a recurring topic, but not a recent phenomenon. “It was William Langland, author of ‘Piers Plowman,’ who wrote that ‘There is not a single modern schoolboy who can compose verses or write a decent letter.’ He died in 1386.” (Economist)

A literary life is the dream for most United Kingdom residents. According to a YouGov poll, 60 percent of respondents answered that the most desirable job to have in Britain today is “author.” (Guardian)

After the large bookstore chain Borders went out of business in 2011, many storefronts were left empty. Now, independent bookstores are beginning to take over the former Borders spaces. (GalleyCat)

“A writer must handle a story with more care if he or she is writing about a traditionally oppressed group, especially if that writer does not face the same systemic disadvantages as his subjects.” At Electric Literature, Morgan Jerkins discusses the difficulties of writing across difference, as well as the struggle to properly critique works about marginalized groups.