Literary news in brief
LOCAL
Pig Iron meeting
YOUNGSTOWN — Pig Iron Literary and Art Works Inc. Art Association will meet at 7 p.m. April 20 at the Pig Iron Press, 26 N. Phelps St. The meeting is open to the public.
Austintown author has uplifting messages
“Enjoying Your Journey Even When the Road is Out,” a new book being released nationwide by author Bonnie Verdinek, of Austintown, offers uplifting messages for readers.
The book, published by Tate Publishing and Enterprises, is a compilation of uplifting and encouraging lessons for someone who has gone through a rough patch.
The author encourages readers to retain their joy, even if they wonder why bad things happen to them or question God.
The book is available at any bookstore or can be ordered at www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore.
Verdinek, an ordained minister, founded the Ministry of Righteousness Being Restored.
Wick Poetry Series offers eclectic anthology
KENT — The latest addition to the Wick Poetry Series, an anthology of 55 poets, is an eclectic grouping that illustrates new directions poetry has taken since the early 1990s.
“The Next of Us Is About to Be Born” celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University, which has published first books of poems by many of the country’s best young and emerging poets.
This series is edited by the director of the Wick Poetry Center, Maggie Anderson, a professor of English at KSU and director of Northeast Ohio MFA program.
Coming to bookshelves
Change-up: Release date for A-Rod bio keeps moving
NEW YORK — Like a runner trapped between bases, the release date for a potentially scandalous Alex Rodriguez book keeps edging back and forth.
Selena Roberts’ unauthorized “A-Rod” was planned for May, then was moved up to mid-April after Roberts, a Sports Illustrated reporter, broke the news that the Yankees slugger had tested positive for steroids back in 2003.
But with Roberts needing more time for the book — which has been completed and was sent to the printer — publication was pushed back to late this month, with the on-sale date now set for May 12, according to publisher HarperCollins.
Scott Turow plans sequel to a classic thriller
NEW YORK — Scott Turow is putting out a sequel to his million-selling “Presumed Innocent” and leaving his longtime publisher.
Turow’s next book, “Innocent,” will be released in May 2010 by Grand Central Publishing, a division of the Hachette Book Group (USA).
The author had spent the past two decades publishing hardcovers with Farrar, Straus & Giroux and paperbacks with Grand Central, formerly Warner Books.
Turow is the second major author within the past year-and- a-half to leave Farrar, Straus for Hachette, the rare thriving publisher, thanks in part to Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series.
In early 2008, Tom Wolfe ended a 40-year run at Farrar and announced he would publish his next novel, “Back to Blood,” with Little, Brown and Co., a Hachette division.
As with Wolfe, sales had dropped for Turow’s recent books, notably “Ordinary Heroes.”
Vindicator staff/wire reports