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:
In February, state funding for English programs at the College of Charleston and University of South Carolina Upstate was cut after books exploring sexuality and LGBT issues, such as Alison Bechdel's graphic novel Fun Home, were assigned as required reading to incoming freshmen. In the latest development of the ongoing issue, South Carolina's lieutenant governor, conservative republican Glenn McConnell, has been tapped to be the College of Charleston’s next president as the state Senate debates the budget, with reinstatement of funding unlikely. (NPR)
In the continuing battle between Amazon and publishing houses, Hachette Book Group—which publishes books under the Little, Brown and Grand Central imprints, among many others—has accused Amazon of steering customers away from purchasing their titles, including books by Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen Colbert, and J. D. Salinger, by delaying their delivery for up to two or three weeks. (New York Times)
Meanwhile, Amazon has extended Sunday delivery of books and other items to fifteen U.S. cities following a successful test run of the service in New York City and Los Angeles. (GalleyCat)
HarperCollins has reported an 83 percent overall increase in sales in the third quarter of fiscal year 2014, in part due to e-book sales. (Publishers Weekly)
In other digital book news, Oyster, an e-book subscription service launched last fall, has reached 500,000 books in its catalog. (Digital Book World)
Flavorwire lists ten memoirs about motherhood that might not make the best Mother's Day gifts.
In response to a recent profile of Jennifer Weiner in the New Yorker, Laura Miller offers a close reading of the novelist's work. (Salon)
The Paris Review considers two pages from Allen Crawford’s illustrated and hand-lettered edition of Walt Whitman's “Song of Myself.”
