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:
NPR talks to Teju Cole about the origins of his new book, Every Day Is for the Thief, a novella originally published in Nigeria in 2007 that is being released in the United States today by Random House.
San Francisco’s Marcus Books, a bookshop that has specialized in black literature for fifty-three years, is running an online fundraiser to avoid closure, having already raised $1.6 million independently. (Fine Books & Collections)
Meanwhile, Irenosen Okojie argues against the lack of diversity in British publishing, asking why very few writers of color are supported by the industry. (Guardian)
Three filmmakers are suing author J. L. Witterick along with Penguin Canada for the publication of Witterick’s 2013 novel, My Mother’s Secret; the plaintiffs allege that the novel too closely resembles their 2009 film, No. 4 Street of Our Lady. The author admits she used the film’s historical basis as inspiration. (Globe and Mail)
The New Yorker takes a look at the forthcoming English translation of French economist Thomas Piketty’s book Capital in the Twenty-First Century; interest concerning the forthcoming treatise on inequality has prompted Belknap, an imprint of Harvard University Press, to push forward the book’s publication from April to this month.
Joseph Stromberg, a journalist at Slate, puts his undergraduate thesis through a questionable publication process with an arm of the German publishing-machine VDM.
British politicians are defending recent legislation that would prevent families from sending prisoners reading material by pointing to the availability of books in prison libraries; prisons minister Jeremy Wright released a statement that describes prison cells as filled with “up to twelve books…at any one time.” (Bookseller)
Flavorwire's Jason Diamond advocates the Midwest as the writer’s new playground.
Nick Ripatrazone writes of his transition from conspiracy theorist and historian to writer as well as the unconventional backgrounds of many American authors. (Millions)
