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:
New Jersey’s Star-Ledger reported that former New Jersey poet laureate Amiri Baraka [2] died yesterday at age seventy-nine.
In the Washington Post, Matt Schudel discusses the life, storied career, and polarizing work of Amiri Baraka [3].
Eloise Klein Healy, the first appointed poet laureate of Los Angeles, has resigned from her position to focus on her recovery from viral encephalitis [4]. (Los Angeles Times)
Sales of Barnes & Noble’s Nook fell 60.5 percent [5] over the nine-week holiday season; the bookstore giant’s retail sales dropped 6.6 percent. (Publishers Weekly)
In an effort to protect small businesses, the French government has approved a bill that would ban Amazon and other online retailers [6] from offering free delivery. (Shelf Awareness)
BuzzFeed lists sixteen books to read [7] before film adaptations hit theaters this year, including Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
Memoirist and former child soldier Ishmael Beah [8] spoke with NPR’s Renee Montagne about his first novel Radiance of Tomorrow.
On Graywolf’s blog, editor Jeff Shotts discusses the challenges of his job and the lamentable art of rejection [9]: “The first thing to be said is: by practicing this art, you will disappoint, can only disappoint, you will always always disappoint.”