The Writer’s News
The Writer’s News keeps you informed about new developments in the writing world, including award and publication announcements, news from AWP and the field, and updates about important literary figures.
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December 12, 2012
The 2012 Whiting Award Winners
This year, ten promising writers of poetry, nonfiction, fiction, plays each received $50,000 from the Whiting Foundation. For playwriting, Danai Gurira, Samuel D. Hunter, Mona Mansour, and Meg Miroshnik received the honor; for fiction, Alan Heathcock, Anthony Marra, and Hanna Pylväinen; for poetry, Ciaran Berry and Atsuro Riley; and for nonfiction, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts. Read more...
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December 12, 2012
The 2012 National Book Award Winners
This year’s winners of the $10,000 prize, marking the sixty-third year of the National Book Awards, included Louise Erdrich in fiction (for The Round House), Katherine Boo in nonfiction (Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity), David Ferry in poetry (Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations), and William Alexander in Young People’s Literature (Goblin Secrets). In addition to the NBA laureates, novelist Elmore Leonard and New York Times publisher, Arthur O. Sulzberger, were each lauded with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Read more...
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December 12, 2012
The Penguin-Random House Merger
On October 29, publishing giants Penguin and Random House completed an agreement to merge. The result is a worldwide publishing mega-house with an estimated $4 billion in revenue. Read more...
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December 12, 2012
Life in Prison for Writing and Reading a Poem
For writing a poem that allegedly encourages the overthrow of Qatar’s government, poet Muhammad ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami received a life sentence in prison. Read more...
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December 12, 2012
China to Build Theme Park to Honor New Noble Laurate
To honor and preserve the hometown of recent Nobel Prize for Literature winner Mo Yan, China is entertaining a proposal to build a £67 million theme park, referred to as the “Red Sorghum Culture and Experience Zone.” Read more...
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December 12, 2012
Edgar Allan Poe’s House Robbed, Vandalized
In Baltimore this past November, the former home of Edgar Allan Poe, which is now a tourist attraction in the midst of re-establishment after falling into financial disarray and relative unpopularity, was marred by illegible graffiti, and its front steps were stolen. Read more...
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December 12, 2012
Poet Jack Gilbert Has Died
On November 11, at age 87, poet Jack Gilbert died following complications from pneumonia. For years, Gilbert had also reportedly suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Read more...
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December 12, 2012
Philip Roth Announces he has Finished Writing
In an announcement he made in October in an interview to the French media, novelist Philip Roth, now 76 years old, declared he was all finished with writing, effectively making his 2010 novel, Nemesis, his final work of fiction. Read more...
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December 12, 2012
Playful Chooseable-Path Version of Hamlet Draws Big Bucks
On Kickstarter, the website that helps promote crowd-funded projects, a choose-your-own-way edition of Shakespeare’s tragic play, Hamlet, called, To Be or Not to Be: That is the Adventure, has received, as of early December, nearly $300,000 in support from interested readers. Read more...
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December 1, 2012
Moveable Type: Talking with J.A. Tyler, Founding Editor of Mud Luscious Press
J.A. Tyler, founding editor of Mud Luscious Press in Colorado, took a few moments to answer some questions about his press. Read more...
