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News, Awards & Events

Salman Rushdie warns that free speech is under threat in a new public speech. PBS Canvas reports. USA Today, FoxNews, and CBSNews also have coverage.

The 2023 Xingyun Awards Winners are announced. 

The Author’s Guild released a statement regarding the New Leaf Literary & Media controversy. Publishers Weekly and Publishers Lunch both have coverage. 

PW reports on a wave of resignations at Coffee House Press. 

Journalist Masha Gessen resigns from the PEN America board. NYT has coverage.

A new survey finds that Tiktok users report reading 50% more because of Booktok. BookRiot reports. 

Storytel Group acquired rights to the Finnish Koskinen crime series.

Publishers Lunch will host a Buzz Books Editors Panel, tonight at 7 p.m. EST. 

Reviews

NYT reviews The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings To Amass Power and Undermine the Republic by Stephen Vladeck (Basic): “Vladeck has taken it upon himself to translate the court’s deliberately cryptic orders and legal technicalities into accessible English”; and Lincoln’s God: How Faith Transformed a President and a Nation by Joshua Zeitz (Viking): “Zeitz has chosen an important element of Lincoln’s life to explore, especially in an age when the virus of religious certainty drives so much autocratic thinking, at home and abroad.”

The Washington Post reviews A Life of One’s Own: Nine Women Writers Begin Again by Joanna Biggs (Ecco): “Biggs doesn’t approach these monumental writers as one’s professor would have. Instead, she writes about them as if reminiscing about late, lamented ‘friends,’ or, as she calls them, ‘household goddesses’”; The Three of Us by Ore Agbaje-Williams (Putnam): “You may not want a friend like Temi, but keep a copy of The Three of Us handy. It’s the perfect bridal shower gift for that special frenemy”; and I Thought You Loved Me by MariNaomi (Amble Pr.): “MariNaomi’s painstaking explorations are in line with those of other serial memoirists, including cartoonists such as Julie Doucet, Chester Brown and Gabrielle Bell, and writers such as Maya Angelou, Mary Karr and Dani Shapiro.”

NPR reviews Sidle Creek by Jolene McIlwain (Melville House): “Sidle Creek's stories largely focus on people who are making their lives where they were born and raised, as well as some who have come from away — and the small and large dramas of their lives are rendered in beautiful prose.”

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren (Gallery; LJ starred review), the top holds title of the week.

LJ’s Barbara Hoffert has new prepub alerts for fiction, SF/Fantasy/Magic Realism, nonfiction, fine arts & performing arts, and biographies.

The Washington Post talks with Andrew McCarthy about his new book, Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain (Grand Central). McCarthy shares a Q&A with his son Sam about their trip and accomplishments at NYT.

Samantha Irby chats about her new book of essays, Quietly Hostile: Essays (Vintage), and her writing process with Shondaland. Dina Gachman talks about writing something new about grieving in her book, So Sorry for Your Loss: How I Learned To Live with Grief, and Other Grave Concerns (Union Square). Laura Hankin discusses her novel, The Daydreams (Berkley). Plus, Ada Zhang, The Sorrows of Others (A Public Space Bks.), is an “author to watch.”

ElectricLit talks with Emmanuel Iduma about his memoir, I Am Still With You: A Reckoning with Silence, Inheritance, and History (Algonquin), and the “search for the uncle he never knew.”

The Rumpus has an interview with R.F. Kuang about the truth behind her new novel, Yellowface (Morrow). 

The Millions talks with Max Porter, Shy (Graywolf), about “England, music, and the literature of boyhood.”

Elliot Page unboxes his new memoir, Pageboy (Flatiron), which arrives June 6. People has the story. 

NYT presents “The Essential Neil Gaiman.”

Entertainment Weekly shares a preview and excerpt from Eddie Muller’s Noir Bar: Cocktails Inspired by the World of Film Noir (Running Pr.; LJ starred review). 

Héctor Tobar, Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino” (MCD), leads a literary tour of Los Angeles at NYT.

Tor shares an excerpt from Kritika H. Rao’s forthcoming fantasy epic, The Surviving Sky (Titan; LJ starred review), due out June 13th. 

BookRiot lists 8 best Isabel Allende books, 10 contemporary romance books for straight men, and 10 scary vampire books. 

Autostraddle shares “Required Reading for Jupiter in Taurus.”

The Guardian has the top ten strangest alien invasion novels. 

USA Today previews “5 memoirs we're excited for this year.”

CBC shares the bestselling Canadian books of the week. 

Memoirist Amy Silverstein Dies at 59. NYT has an obituary. 

Authors On Air

NPR’s Morning Edition talks with Kwame Alexander about his new book, Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Recipes, Letters, and Remembrances (Little, Brown). Also, Morning Edition has a conversation with Thom Shanker, co-author of Age of Danger: Keeping America Safe in an Era of New Superpowers, New Weapons, and New Threats, written with Andrew Hoehn (Hachette), about the threats of AI. 

An interview with NPR’s Fresh Air features Samantha Irby and her new book, Quietly Hostile: Essays (Vintage). 

NPR’s All Things Considered talks with R.F. Kuang about her new novel, Yellowface (Morrow), and cultural appropriation in publishing. NPR’s Main Character of the Day has an introduction to Kuang and her latest book. 

PBS Canvas interviews Andy Cohen about his new book, The Daddy Diaries: The Year I Grew Up (Holt). 

Roxane Gay, Carrie Brownstein, Roberta Colindrez, Jane Lynch will star in the Audible adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s comic strip, Dykes To Watch Out For. Autostraddle reports.

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