New J. D. Salinger Letters, Neil Gaiman's Author Advice, and More

by
Evan Smith Rakoff
4.24.13

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:

To help cover Marjorie Sheard's nursing home expenses, her family sold a collection of 1940s correspondence between Sheard and the young J. D. Salinger to the Morgan Library. For seven decades the letters were stored in a tucked-away shoebox. (New York Times)

Meanwhile, Truman Capote's marked-up Breakfast at Tiffany's manuscript is for sale. (Los Angeles Times)

After five years, Colorado-based Mud Luscious Press has shuttered. (Publishers Weekly)

Digital Book World showcases its e-book bestseller list for the first quarter of 2013—Hachette leads the pack.

After five years at the helm of Granta, editor John Freeman will soon depart the literary journal, and move back to New York City to teach at Columbia University. (GalleyCat)

In other staffing news, Rumpus managing editor Isaac Fitzgerald has been named publicity director for indy powerhouse McSweeney’s. On her blog, author Roxane Gay details what it was like to work with Isaac.

In a recent speech at the Digital Minds Conference, Neil Gaiman offered key advice to authors. (Forbes)

In Second Acts, a Los Angeles Review of Books feature that revisits sophomore books of poetry, Lisa Russ Spaar considers the work of Beckian Fritz Goldberg and Andrew Feld.

For the American Scholar, poet Donald Hall remembers motoring across postwar Europe with his first wife Kirby.

PEN World Voices kicks off April 29—the weeklong festival features readings, events, and workshops across New York City, including a post-MFA workshop with Lynn Tilman.