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 New Oxford American Dictionary has announced its 2009 Word of the Year [2], the verb “unfriend”—which beat out “birther,” “sexting,” and “zombie bank.”
Editor and bookshop proprietor Otto Penzler has been recruited by Atlantic to head up a new imprint this January (Press Release [3]).
Two novels by recent Noble Prize-winner Herta Müller have been scheduled to appear in English for the first time (New York Times [4]).
Digital publishing firm Aptara has developed a platform for converting large volumes of content into the widely accessible ePub format (Publishers Weekly [5]).
More than 3,500 signatures have been added to a petition protesting the possible closure of Boston’s historic State Library of Massachusetts [6] (Library Journal [7]).
Bookseller Borders has reportedly disbanded the British division of its e-commerce team (Bookseller [8]).
Meanwhile, the owner of Borders’ Asia Pacific operations has announced a new chain of media and stationery stores scheduled to launch next year in Sydney (Billboard [9]).
In more Aussie news, the CEO of bookstore chain Dymocks will host a conference for retailers unhappy with the government’s recent decision to leave book import rules in place (Sydney Morning Herald [10]).