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:
The Whiting Foundation has announced the ten winners of its 2016 Whiting Awards. The annual awards are given to emerging writers of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama. This year’s winners include poets Safiya Sinclair and Ocean Vuong; fiction writers Mitchell S. Jackson and Alice Sola Kim; and nonfiction writers Brian Blanchfield and J. D. Daniels. Each writer receives $50,000. For more details, read the Grants & Awards Blog.
The Observer looks at recent pushes across both digital and print publishing platforms that are giving pulp and short-form fiction its comeback, including Amazon’s Kindle Singles and James Patterson’s new BookShots series.
At Guernica, fiction writer Karan Mahajan discusses his new novel, The Association of Small Bombs, and the challenges of writing about terrorism. “It becomes so exalted in our minds that it becomes impossible to see clearly…. On the other hand: terrorism is interesting to a novelist because it’s a crime that’s driven by an idea, as opposed to some kind of base materialist impulse.”
BuzzFeed has launched READER, a new section of the website that houses new literary content including poetry, stories, and essays. READER currently features a poem by Jericho Brown, a short story from Helen Oyeyemi’s new collection, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, and a new essay from Melissa Broder.
Lee Bo, one of the five Hong Kong publishers and booksellers who had been missing since last November, has returned home. Bo stated to Hong Kong police that he was safe while on the mainland and that he had not been abducted, but has not provided any further information about his disappearance. The men who disappeared are associated with a Hong Kong publisher and bookstore whose works about China’s Communist leadership have been banned. (Guardian)
Álvaro Enrigue, whose fifth novel Sudden Death is his first to be translated from Spanish into English, shares his literary preferences with the New York Times, including his favorite genres and Mexican writers, and the author he would most like to meet: “I could have two or three vodkas with Mikhail Bulgakov. I could kiss him—after the vodkas.”
In a conversation at Literary Hub, fiction writer Angela Flournoy speaks with Kaitlyn Greenidge about specific craft choices she made in her debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman, and how each decision, especially for first-time novelists, comes with high stakes.
