Lunch Poems Turns Fifty, Amazon’s Latest Strike Against Hachette, and More

by
Staff
5.23.14

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:

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Frank O’Hara’s 1964 collection Lunch Poems, a special edition of which has been released by San Francisco's City Lights Books. (Atlantic)

In the ongoing battle between Amazon and Hachette, the Internet retailer has removed the ability to pre-order the publisher’s books before their official release date. (Publishers Lunch)

BitLit, a new tech start-up based in Vancouver, offers readers discounted or free digital copies of the print books that they already own. (TechCrunch)

Sixty-two percent of the United Kingdom’s reading public prefers to curl up in bed at the end of the day with a book rather than reading over the weekend, on a lunch break, or in the bath, according to an infographic created by the British website Lovereading. The graphic also details how many readers organize their libraries, how many prefer e-books to print, and how many admit to reading a book after seeing the film adaptation. (GalleyCat)

NASA has released, removed, and rereleased a free three-hundred-page e-book this week titled Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication, which considers the ways in which humans and extraterrestrials may speak to one another once contact is established. (Sploid)

Meanwhile, writer Marcia Lynx Qualey examines the rising popularity of science fiction in Middle Eastern literature. (Al Jazeera)

Jellybean’s, an independent used bookstore in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, burned to the ground this week after the roof was struck by lightning. (MLive)

Kenny Sarfin, a bookstore owner in Englewood, New Jersey, has donated eighty books to Dwight Morrow High School, where both he and his wife were students, after receiving a grant of an undisclosed amount from author James Patterson. (North Jersey Media Group)