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:
Former U.S. poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize–winner Philip Levine died Saturday [2] at age eighty-seven. Levine was known for his sharp observational style and matter-of-fact poems about industrial Detroit. Over the past fifty years, Levine published twenty-four books. New York Times critic Dwight Garner writes that Levine’s death [3] is a “serious blow for American poetry, in part because he so vividly evoked the drudgery and hardships of working-class life in America, and in part because this didn’t pull his poetry down into brackishness.”
In memory of Levine, read a Q&A with the poet [4]from the March/April 2012 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, and listen to a recording of him reading his poem “The Mercy.” [5]
Princeton University graduate William H. Scheide donated $300 million worth of rare books to the school [6]. Scheide’s collection of 2,500 books includes a 1455 Gutenberg Bible and a speech autographed by Abraham Lincoln in 1856. Scheide’s donation is the single largest in Princeton’s history. (NJ)
Anxiety over the decline of the English language [7] is a recurring topic, but not a recent phenomenon. “It was William Langland, author of ‘Piers Plowman,’ who wrote that ‘There is not a single modern schoolboy who can compose verses or write a decent letter.’ He died in 1386.” (Economist)
A literary life is the dream for most United Kingdom residents. According to a YouGov [8] poll, 60 percent of respondents answered that the most desirable job to have in Britain today is “author.” [9] (Guardian)
After the large bookstore chain Borders went out of business in 2011, many storefronts were left empty. Now, independent bookstores [10] are beginning to take over the former Borders spaces. (GalleyCat)
“A writer must handle a story with more care if he or she is writing about a traditionally oppressed group, especially if that writer does not face the same systemic disadvantages as his subjects.” At Electric Literature, Morgan Jerkins discusses the difficulties of writing across difference [11], as well as the struggle to properly critique works about marginalized groups.