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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February 1, 2007
State Appropriations for Higher Education Increase for 2006-07
After years of flat funding and budget cuts in many states, academe enjoyed a rebound as many states approved double-digit percentage increases in their funding of public higher education Read more...
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February 1, 2007
Author Websites Rule
According to Publisher's Weekly, a new survey conducted by the advertising firm Spier New York found that 18% of readers visited a publisher's website, but 23% of the same readers visited an author's site Read more...
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February 1, 2007
Former AWP Board Member Puts the Corleone Clan to Rest
Autho Mario Puzo's estate chose Mark Winegardner to fill in the gaps in Godfather series in the The Godfather Returns, which was published in 2004 Read more...
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February 1, 2007
Debut British Writer Wins Bad Sex in Fiction Award
Iain Hollinshead beat literature stalwarts like Booker Prize nominee David Mitchell, best seller Mark Haddon, and literary maverick Thomas Pynchon to the prize which aims to skewer "the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel." Read more...
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February 1, 2007
Iranian Officials Ban a Best Seller
Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has effectively banned a female writer's award-winning bestseller, I Will Turn Out the Lights. Read more...
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February 1, 2007
India Basks as Guest of Honor at the 2006 Frankfurt Book Fair
India, which as one observer put it, is less a country and more a subcontinent, took advantage of its status as Frankfurt's Guest of Honor in October 2006 to bring international attention to its literary scene Read more...
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February 1, 2007
New Sylvia Plath Sonnet, Reflecting on Themes of Gatsby, Published in Virginia Literary Journal
Blackbird, an online journal published by the Virginia Common-wealth University's (VCU) English Department, will publish for the first time, a sonnet that Sylvia Plath wrote in college. Read more...
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February 1, 2007
Houghton Mifflin Accepts Buyout
For nearly $1.8 billion, the textbook-publishing giant has accepted a buyout from Riverdeep Holdings, an Irish educational software company. Read more...
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February 1, 2007
NEA Study on the Arts and Civic Engagement
The National Endowment for the Arts conducted the first survey to study the correlation between arts participation and community involvement. Read more...
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February 1, 2007
President Bush Nominates Six New Members to National Council on the Arts
Six new members were nominated by President Bush to serve on the National Council on the Arts, which is the advisory body of the National Endowment for the Arts Read more...