Maya Angelou's Garden Birthday Party, Melville House's Gold Whales, and More

by Staff
5.21.10

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:

Book trailer enthusiasts gathered last night at the glitzy Griffin club in New York City's Meatpacking District to see winners of Melville House's first annual Moby Awards collect their gold whales. (GalleyCat)

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at how the digital revolution is rewriting all the rules of bookselling.

Apparently scientists enjoyed Ian McEwan's latest novel, Solar, a dark satire about global warming, but American critics and readers—not so much. “They didn’t get it at all," the author tells the Telegraph.

A book that George Washington borrowed from a New York library—more than two centuries ago—has been returned. The Daily News quotes the library's chairman of the board of trustees: "I hereby absolve George Washington and his representatives for any overdue library fees incurred."

The Virginia Quarterly Review looks back at its relationship with D. H. Lawrence.

Former diplomat Michell Reiss has signed with Jane Friedman and Jeffrey Sharp's Open Road Integrated Media to produce the year-old venture's first original e-book this fall. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Naomi Judd and Martina McBride sang "Happy Birthday to You" to Maya Angelou at the poet's belated eighty-second birthday party yesterday. (USA Today)

Chuck Palahniuk made only one Los Angeles appearance to promote his new novel, Tell-All, and Jacket Copy's Carolyn Kellogg was there to witness the "literary vaudeville."