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:
On Monday, Daily News reported the startling confession of the wife of a British professor whose colleagues' books had been trashed in anonymously posted Amazon book reviews. Today, the Guardian revealed yet another twist: The professor's wife—herself a law lecturer at Cambridge—had lied about posting the reviews to protect her husband, who has now confessed to the deed.
Today is possibly Shakespeare's birthday—and also possibly the anniversary of his death, apparently—and a critic from the Telegraph marked the occasion by expressing alarm at the bard's diminishing presence in classrooms.
BookExpo America announced a major new panel for its upcoming conference: FSG President John Galassi will moderate a CEO's panel discussion with the heads of Penguin, Workman, ICM, ABA, and the Authors Guild. (Publishers Weekly)
The judge in the Google Book Settlement was promoted yesterday by the U.S. Senate, likely causing an indefinite delay in a ruling on the settlement. (MobyLives)
The Academy of American Poets held their annual gala Tuesday night with a host of A-list stars performing poetry, including Sting, Meryl Streep, Matt Dillon, and Alan Cumming. The New Yorker's Book Bench has a fun quiz on which star read what poem.
While books are the largest category of apps in the iTunes store, they are also the least likely to be purchased, accounting for "just 3 percent of all app purchases." (GigaOm)
Evelyn Waugh's grandson reveals the real family behind Brideshead Revisited and the reason the novelist was so obsessed with them. (Daily Beast)
A hundred-year-old woman in Oregon bought an iPad, her very first computer, and her daughter claims it has "changed her life." The centenarian has already read two e-books and written twelve limericks on it. See the utterly charming video over at Gizmodo.
