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 Los Angeles Public Library begins a new schedule of reduced hours on Sunday, July 18. "Going forward, the Central Library and all seventy-two L.A. Public Library branches will be open just five days, Tuesday through Saturday," according to the Los Angeles Times.
The president and First Lady Michelle Obama will serve as honorary chairs of the tenth annual National Book Festival on Saturday, September 25, on the National Mall in Washington D.C. The festival will host a week of lead-up events and feature a stellar line-up of more than seventy acclaimed writers and poets. (PRWeb)
Due to "a ballooning deficit," the University of Toronto has announced plans to close its prestigious Centre for Comparative Literature, which was founded by the "iconic literary critic Northrop Frye." (Chronicle)
O: The Oprah Magazine is coming to the iPad and will include one feature "the book biz will be especially interested in: Oprah-recommended e-books will be for sale through the app, and users will be able to read them within the app too." (Publishers Weekly)
Dave Eggers's first solo art show opens in San Francisco today at the gallery Electric Works. (New York Observer)
The book cover designer for Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo "prepared nearly fifty distinct designs" before Knopf settled on the bright yellow cover that "has become one of the most instantly recognizable and iconic book covers in contemporary fiction in the United States," according to the Wall Street Journal.
In easily the most surreal news of the day, The Great Gatsby is now available as a video game. (New York)
Using a simple calculation, a Telegraph critic tiptoed (or, plunged) into morbid territory this morning by attempting to answer the question: "How many books can I read before I die?"
