The Birth of the New Yorker Story, Libraries in the Technocracy, and More

by
Staff
10.29.15

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:

Best-selling novelist Jonathan Franzen looks at the history of the “distinct literary genus” that emerged in the 1950s and dominated American short fiction for a time: “the New Yorker story.”

The American Booksellers Association (ABA) has launched a test designed to increase traffic to independent bookstores. Upon completing an initial purchase online at IndieBound.org, a customer will be directed to nearby ABA bookstores for future purchases.

At Bookforum, writer and musician Carrie Brownstein—whose debut memoir, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, was published this week—discusses her influences and how writing and performing are forms of negotiating with the self. “As a performer who’s been in dialogue with myself, I think the book kind of charts that same territory where it fluctuates between some criticism and then some certainty about things. But then it sort of acknowledges its own uncertainty.”

Over at Literary Hub, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Gregory Pardlo talks with poet Tracy K. Smith about balancing family and writing, confessional poetry, manifestos, and more.  Smith’s memoir, Ordinary Light, is shortlisted for the National Book Award in nonfiction.

Speaking of Gregory Pardlo, the Guardian highlights the poet’s participation in a recent panel on diversity in publishing, hosted by the City University of New York and PEN American Center. Pardlo discussed the invisibility of writers of color in the industry: “I’ve been publishing in ‘mainstream’ journals and my book won [the Pulitzer], so what is it that is making me invisible? It’s not the work and it’s not the publishing credits.”

Fiction writer Emma Donoghue talks to Publishers Weekly about adapting her 2010 best-selling novel Room into a screenplay. The recently released film version of Room has already achieved widespread critical acclaim.

“In the technocracy, all the world’s information comes to us on screens…and no one trudges through wind and rain with library card in hand to find a single worn object.” James Gleick examines the problems facing public libraries today, but remains optimistic about their future and the value they hold in society. (New York Review of Books)