Anita Mechler

The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, focused on nonfiction, releases its shortlist. Finalists are out for the Minnesota Book Awards. Book banning in Florida makes more news, and the backlash against Colleen Hoover gets another think piece. Plus, Page to Screen. 

Awards announcements include the Center for Black Literature Octavia E. Butler Awards and the Romantic Novel Awards shortlists. Also, the Romantic Novelists Association names A Christmas Celebration by Heidi Swain as the winner of the 2023 Popular Romantic Fiction Award. Starting at the top of the best-seller lists are Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love by Mike Pompeo and Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens by Richard Haass. There are interviews with authors Natasha Lester, Siddharth Kara, Hafizah Geter, Eleanor Shearer, and Annalee Newitz. Toni Collette stars in the new adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s The Power; meanwhile, the adaptation Kindred, based on the work of Octavia Butler, has been canceled after one season.

Carolina De Robertis wins the  John Dos Passos Prize. The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize longlist is out. The Authors Guild is supporting an antitrust action against Google. Interviews feature Hua Hsu, Pamela Anderson, Davon Loeb, Eleanor Shearer, Rebecca Rukeyser, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Vauhini Vara, Angie Cruz, Aubrey Gordon, Margaret Heffernan, and Zachary Shore. There is adaptation news for Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us and Stephen King’s short story “Children of the Corn.”

There are awards announcements for the 2023 AJL Jewish Fiction Award, with Omer Friedlander winning for his book, The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land; also honored are Rachel Barenbaum for Atomic Anna and GennaRose Nethercott for Thistlefoot. Beginning their debuts on the best-seller lists are The Cabinet of Dr. Leng by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, How To Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix, Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes by Stephen A. Smith, and Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo. There are author interviews with George McCalman, Frank Vogl, Jeff Guinn, Sam Lipsyte, and Kevin Maloney.

The NAACP Image Awards nominees are announced in the Outstanding Literary Works category. Nominees are also out for the Edgar Allan Poe Award. There are interviews with authors including Adriana Herrera, Liz Harmer, Jinger Dugger Vuolo, Kristin Chenoweth, Lauren Fleshman, Jessica Johns, Matthew Connelly, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Monica Heisey, and Matthew Salesses. There is adaptation news for Yomi Adegoke’s Slay In Your Lane and Henry James’s The Beast In The Jungle.

There is news about upcoming book bans in North Dakota, the launch of Parapraxis, a new magazine on the subject of psychoanalysis, and on the proceedings of the HarperCollins Union. Starting at the top of the best-seller lists are Hell Bent, by Leigh Bardugo, The House of Wolves, by James Patterson and Mike Lupica, Spare, by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot To Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill, by Brad Meltzer. There are interviews with authors such as Amina Cain, Heather Radke, and Bruce Wagner. There is adaptation news for Hunter’s Run by George R. R. Martin, Daniel Abraham, and Gardner Dozois.

Caroline Frost, Shadows of Pecan Hollow, wins the Crook’s Corner Book Prize. The Mystery Writers of America announces the Grand Master, Raven, and Ellery Queen Award winners for 2023. Topping the best-seller lists are The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes, Without a Trace by Danielle Steel, Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor, The Villa by Rachel Hawkins, and Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past by Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer. There are interviews with authors such as Deena Mohamed, Kelcey Ervick, Iris Yamashita, and Kashana Cauley.

The 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Awards are announced. More leaked details from Prince Harry’s memoir are out. Apple Books is launching a line of audiobooks narrated by AI. Romance writer Susan Meachen returns from the dead. Plus, author interviews abound and feature conversations with Nicole Morse, Amanda Oliver, Laura Zigman, Kashana Cauley, and David Sedaris.

News sources report on the acquisition of Fletcher & Company by United Talent Agency and announcements regarding the 2023 Silvers-Dudley Prize winners. Authors Maia Kobabe, Shahan Mufti, Chris Belcher, and V.V. Ganeshananthan discuss their books in interviews. There is adaptation news for Jessica Simpson’s memoir Open Book and for the essay “How To Murder Your Husband” by indie romance novelist Nancy Crampton Brophy, who was recently convicted of killing her husband.