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:
Eight thousand volumes of centuries-old texts were saved from destruction during the recent fighting in Timbuktu. (New York Times)
Today, Amazon announced Amazon Coins, a virtual currency for purchasing apps and games on its Kindle Fire.
A new website, Bookish, has launched—it's a project created by Penguin, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster. (Shelf Awareness)
And on Bookish, Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert (published by Penguin) has choice words for Philip Roth (published by Random House).
Author and former agent Nathan Bransford is hosting a contest to win a chance to have part of your manuscript read by InkWell literary agent Catherine Drayton. (GalleyCat)
The Well blog at the New York Times looks at the uses of poetry in the fight against cancer. Award-winning poet Dr. Rafael Campo tells the Times, "When our bodies betray us in such a profound way, it can be all the more powerful for patients to really use the rhythms of poetry to make sense of what is happening in their bodies."
Meanwhile, books will soon be prescribed as medicine in the United Kingdom. (Christian Science Monitor)
Charlize Theron is reportedly circling the starring role in the screen adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel Dark Places. (Deadline)
The Believer and Los Angeles NPR station KCRW have launched a podcast called the Organist. Its first episode is online, and features George Saunders, Greil Marcus, and Parks and Recreation actor Nick Offerman.
