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:
“Unlike writing, an obsessively solitary activity which can be fraught with dissatisfaction, anxiety, frustration and dread, teaching—at Princeton, certainly—has been an unqualified joy,” Joyce Carol Oates told guests who attended her retirement gala on Friday. Oates has taught for 36 years in the Princeton University Creative Writing Program. The renowned author will participate in the next Poets & Writers Live event in San Francisco on January 10, 2015. Visit the Poets & Writers Live page for more information. (Washington Post)
PBS will stream live coverage of the Miami Book Fair International November 21–23. PBS.org, local NPR station websites, and BookViewNow.org plan to stream selected interviews, panel discussions, and street-fair segments from the event, which will take place at Miami Dade College. (New York Times)
The Chawton House Library in Hampshire, England, which houses 10,000 books by English women authors published between 1600 and 1830, sent out an appeal to restore 75 percent of its collection. Rare editions of works by Jane Austin, Mary Shelley, Aphra Benn, and Ann Radcliffe are in need of repair. The library, which is based in Jane Austen’s brother Edward Knight’s 19th century manor house, requires £60,000 to restore the damaged works. (BBC News)
Speaking of female British authors, at NPR Neda Ulaby reviews Mallory Ortberg’s new book, Texts from Jane Eyre, a satirical reimagining of smartphone correspondence between classic literary characters.
Take a book, leave a book. The first of twenty Little Free Libraries has been installed in Detroit, Michigan. Kim Kozlowski, a Detroit News staff writer, launched the fundraising campaign last September to build the libraries in an effort to promote literacy and make the city more attractive to artists and writers.
As outlined in his will, famed author and illustrator Maurice Sendak’s multimillion-dollar rare book collection was to be donated to the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia. Last week, the Rosenbach Library filed a lawsuit against the author’s foundation and executors of his will, claiming that the Sendak Foundation has “no intention of abiding by the provisions of the will and trust regarding the consultation of the Rosenbach.” (Philly.com)
John Steinbeck’s previously unpublished 1944 short story, “With Your Wings,” appears for the first time in the holiday issue of Strand Magazine. (Associated Press)
