Seamus Heaney Tribute, Germany to Republish Mein Kampf, and More
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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:
A new edition of Adolf Hitler's "autobiographical manifesto of hate," Mein Kampf, will be reissued in Germany in early 2016. The book has been banned in the country for seventy years, and the plan for publication has become the topic of heated debate. (Washington Post)
The latest issue of the Poetry Ireland Review is a "tribute album" to the late Irish poet Seamus Heaney. Fifty leading Irish poets chose their favorite Heaney poem and wrote an accompanying essay for the issue. Heaney passed away in August 2013. (Guardian)
"Auden's idiosyncratic, mercurial spirit, in many ways the legacy of that one indelible line ('Poetry makes nothing happen') marks us still. One can regard that legacy as a re-envisioning of the poet's social role." In an essay for the Boston Review, Robert Huddleston discusses W. H. Auden and the socio-political influence of poetry.
Independent publisher Brooklyn Arts Press is currently running an experimental "Pick-Your-Price" promotion for its latest title. Through March 7, readers can purchase a paperback copy of Noah Eli Gordon's new poetry collection, The Word Kingdom in the Word Kingdom, for whatever price they choose, plus a $5 shipping fee.
Bookstore chain Barnes & Noble announced plans to separate its college bookstore business from its retail and e-book (Nook) units. The retailer's original plan was to spin off its struggling Nook business. (Wall Street Journal)
Meanwhile, at the New York Times, Stephen Heyman assesses the state of independent bookstores in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. In the U.S., independent bookstores appear to be thriving. "Despite all the quantum leaps in technology, the fact is nothing beats a physical, bricks-and-mortar store to discover books that you didn't know about," said CEO of the American Booksellers Association Oren Teicher.
The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) announced this week that Rita Dove will introduce Toni Morrison at the NBCC awards ceremony on March 12. Morrison, who won the NBCC fiction prize in 1977 for her novel Song of Solomon, will receive this year's Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award. (Washington Post)
Richard Linklater, the director of the critically acclaimed film Boyhood, is in talks to direct a film adaptation of Maria Semple's 2012 bestselling novel Where'd You Go Bernadette. (Hollywood Reporter)