Writers' careers

On Monday night, the literary agent, editor and publisher Andrew Blauner sent his contacts a PDF of "The Patient's Checklist" by Elizabeth Bailey. The book is currently out of print, and with no digital copies available, Blauner wanted people to have access to the text should they fall ill and have to go to the hospital.  Read more

Netflix's adaptation of Polish fantasy author Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher series is a sensation, and has prompted Sapkowski's American publisher, Orbit Books, to print 500,000 new copies of the books in the series. In a recent interview, PW asked the author to discuss the new show, what projects he has on his plate, and more.

Yesterday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences produced yet another all-male slate for the Best Director category of the Oscars-and provoked yet another round of outrage that America's culture industry is incapable of recognizing the achievements of women. But there is, in fact, a major creative industry in which women are routinely awarded the top honors.  Read more

Fern Michaels is women's fiction royalty and a publishing legend. The author of the wildly popular Sisterhood series, Michaels has written more than 150 books, more than half of which have been New York Times and USA Today bestsellers. She has 75 million books in print, and her work has been translated into 20 languages.

On a cool winter's day in Cairo, I stepped into the Marriott Hotel and wandered over to the local bakery tucked away near the lavish hotel gardens. In the far corner of the small room sat Umm Kulthoum Mahfouz. We were meeting to discuss her recollections of her father, the late Naguib Mahfouz, Nobel laureate author, who still held the most recognizable name in Arabic literature.  Read more