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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October 28, 2015
Dominican Republic Consul Rescinds Junot Díaz’s Award for Human Rights Advocacy
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz lost a merit award last Thursday after he campaigned in Washington, DC on behalf of undocumented Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic, the Guardian reports. Read more...
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October 28, 2015
Two Iranian Poets, Fateme Ekhtesari and Mehdi Moosavi, Receive Harsh Sentences
For ‘insulting the sacred,’ Iranian poets Fateme Ekhtesari and Mehdi Moosavi have received, respectively, eleven-and-a-half- and nine-year prison sentences from the Tehran Revolutionary Court. Read more...
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October 21, 2015
Short Story Dispensers Debut in the French Alps
In the town of Grenoble, the capital of the French Alps, three-foot tall machines dispense short stories for your reading leisure... for free. Read more...
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October 21, 2015
Google's Digital Library Wins Copyright Battle with the Author's Guild
Google’s enormous effort to scan millions of books doesn’t violate copyright law, ruled a federal appeals court last week. Read more...
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October 21, 2015
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hanya Yanagihara, and Pam Muñoz Ryan Receive Kirkus Prizes
NPR reports that last week, the Kirkus Prizes—now in their second year—went to three writers: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hanya Yanagihara, and Pam Muñoz Ryan. Read more...
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October 21, 2015
Publishers Weekly Survey Finds that Few Minorities Work in Publishing Houses—and That the Workforce Is Younger
Publishers Weekly reports that its 2015 Publishing Industry Salary Survey—a questionnaire emailed at random to more than 5,800 PW subscribers at publishing houses—reveals that the workforce is younger and still overwhelmingly white. Read more...
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October 14, 2015
White House Names Five Teen Ambassadors for the National Students Poets Program
Last week, First Lady Michelle Obama hosted the National Students Poets Program (NSPP) ceremony, where five teen students—selected from a pool of 20,000+ students from around the nation—read their work and received their awards. Read more...
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October 14, 2015
Svetlana Alexievich Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature
The Swedish Academy announced Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarussian journalist and narrative nonfiction writer, as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature last week “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” Read more...
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October 14, 2015
To Remain Competitive, Indie Comic Book Publishers Seek Opportunities to Adapt Works for the Screen
Popular movie franchises like “Batman” and “X-Men” have raked in billions of dollars since their release, motivating independent comic book publishers to pursue opportunities for television, movie, and even play production. Read more...
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October 14, 2015
The Hungry Caterpillar Author-Illustrator Eric Carle Published a New Children’s Book—On Surrealism
Eric Carle, the author and illustrator of children’s classics like The Hungry Caterpillar, has published a new picture book meant to educate children about the surrealist art movement of the early 20th century. Read more...