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:
PEN America has announced the longlists for its 2018 Literary Awards in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and translation. The annual awards are given for books published in the previous year.
Alice B. Toklas, Siegfried Sassoon, Jean Toomer, and Anna Wickham are among a number of authors and artists whose works will enter the public domain on January 1, 2018. (Public Domain Review)
Poet Paul Muldoon has been awarded the 2017 Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. The award, established by King George the V in 1933, honors a poet from the Commonwealth. Previous recipients include W. H. Auden, Philip Larkin, and Stevie Smith. (BBC News)
“I write because I have concerns, and I’m writing somehow to sort of process the concerns or find a solution.” Nigerian American novelist Chinelo Okparanta speaks with OZY about the critical reception her books Happiness, Like Water, and Under the Udala Trees in the United States and Nigeria.
Next May, HarperCollins will publish Barracoon, a book of Zora Neale Hurston’s 1931 interviews with Cudjo Lewis, the last survivor of the U.S. slave trade. (Guardian)
Los Angeles Times book critic Carolyn Kellogg details her recent visits to three writers’ homes in Hartford, Connecticut: the Mark Twain House, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, and the Noah Webster House.
Still searching for literary holiday presents? Salon recommends last-minute book gifts, and Huffington Post offers a list of social justice reads from the New York Legal Assistance Group.
Literary Hub is rounding out the year by counting down the top literary news stories of 2017, including Bob Dylan’s partially plagiarized Nobel speech, Emma Straub’s new bookstore, and Terry Pratchett’s unfinished works being destroyed by a steamroller.
Daily News will return on January 2, 2018. We wish our readers a happy and healthy holiday season!
