Jenji Kohan’s Adaptation of Piper Kerman’s Prison Memoir, Robin Black on Writer’s Block, and More

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:

Weeds creator Jenji Kohan has adapted Piper Kerman’s prison memoirOrange is the New Black as a thirteen-episode series for Netflix. (GalleyCat)

“At the time, I didn’t want everyone to know what I was going through. It was my sadness, my medical problem, my heartbreak.” In a personal essay for the Millions, novelist Emma Straub discusses navigating public and private life.

Bellevue Literary Review editor Danielle Ofri looks at the work of poet and doctor Rafael Campo, and how poetry intersects with the practice of medicine. (Slate)

Sotheby’s auctioned Samuel Beckett’s first novel manuscript for over one million dollars. (Huffington Post)

Ian Crouch revisits Charles Jackson’s 1944 novel The Lost Weekend. Reissued this year by Vintage with an introduction by Blake Bailey, the book shines a light on alcoholism. (New Yorker)

Novelist Robin Black details the good and bad aspects of writer’s block. (Beyond the Margins)

“From my desk I looked straight into Bob’s office, with his three assistants fanned out and thousands of books in teetering piles everywhere, like an office in an eighteenth-century engraving.” Author Luc Sante recalls his time working for the New York Review of Books.

Jason Diamond matches independent publishers with famed indie record labels. (Flavorwire)