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:
On Sunday night, ISIS members bombed the Mosul Public Library in Iraq and destroyed eight thousand rare manuscripts and books. This event follows several previous library bombings and lootings by ISIS militants. It is estimated that nearly 100,000 books have been destroyed in Iraq since December. (Melville House)
Nearly one hundred Canadian independent bookstores have signed up for the inaugural Canadian Authors for Indies Day, which is set to take place on May 2. Founder Janie Chang recently spoke with Laura Godfrey about the initiative at Publishers Weekly.
To honor the one-year anniversary of poet Amiri Baraka’s death, Thomas Sayers Ellis recorded a tribute poem to Baraka for the Poetry Foundation.
“And yet although the writing profession is generally free of the ostentatious egotism of rock’n’roll, the ways in which it is infused with vanity have become increasingly evident to me.” At the Guardian, Julian Baggini discusses the extremes of self-aggrandizement and oversensitivity in the writing world.
Word and Film interviews poet Matthew Dickman about his poem’s inclusion in the New Yorker’s new short-film documentary series, “The New Yorker Presents.” In the pilot episode, actor Andrew Garfield performs Dickman’s poem “King.”
At the New York Times Bookends blog, Ayana Mathis and Pankaj Mishra debate whether James Baldwin was correct to denounce Richard Wright’s novel Native Son.
An anonymous Boston Public Library patron who goes by the username “noluckboston” has labeled seventy-four books in the library’s online portal system with the tag “awful library book.” According to Boston.com, however, “though it seems like noluckboston is hating on the library, he’s really trying to help by pointing out books to make the collection seem more relevant.”
Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Michael Chabon wrote several songs for Mark Ronson’s new album Uptown Special. At the Daily Beast, Chabon lists some of his pop songwriting tips.
