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Awards & News

The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced its 2022 awards in literature.

Penguin Random House launches a Banned Books Resources Hub, featuring information for educators, librarians, parents, and authors. LJ writes about "Public Libraries Face Escalating Book Challenges" and offers a resource list. 

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) is changing its name to The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, Locus reports.

NYPL opens its 9th annual #LiteraryMarchMadness 2022: Book-to-Film Adaptation Edition, a bracket-style tournament with a bookish twist.

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews Mecca by Susan Straight (FSG): ”what might be most impressive about this novel is how large it becomes without ever feeling bloated by extraneous plotlines or too neatly sewn up." NYT also reviews: “Susan Straight is an essential voice in American writing and in writing of the West, and Mecca is a meaningful addition to this canon. She heralds important ways of storytelling that shift how we see the land and one another.”

NYT reviews The Fruit Thief: or, One-Way Journey into the Interior by Peter Handke, trans. by Krishna Winston (FSG; LJ starred review): “I suspect it’s the destiny of such an uncompromising writer as Peter Handke to end up writing basically for an audience of one.” And, Drowning Practice by Mike Meginnis (Ecco): “certainly slow in parts, and some of its quirkier tangents might have been excised or reshaped to better serve the central narrative. But like a dream, it follows its own logic, and like many dreams, it has stayed with me in the waking hours since I emerged.” And, True Biz by Sara Novic (Random): “is moving, fast-paced and spirited — we have vivid access to all of the main characters’ points of view — but also skillfully educational: The lessons Charlie learns about A.S.L. and deaf culture are interspersed in the text and illustrated by Brittany Castle.” Also, The Wonders by Elena Medel, trans. by Lizzie Davis & Thomas Bunstead (Algonquin): “is not a loud, fizzy debut, and this is one of its strengths. It is a vivid and painfully intimate account of two easily overlooked lives.” And, Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde (Riverhead): “Some of the most indelible characters recur through multiple stories, often in female dyads: mothers and daughters, lovers, friends.” And, Things Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse: Inside the Collapse of Venezuela by William Neuman (St. Martin’s): “is a thorough and important history not just of the vast metastasis of the Bolivarian Revolution’s cancers, but also of how the oil republic’s sicknesses had spread well before Chávez, from the moment it drilled its first Lake Maracaibo well in 1914.” And, We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland by Fintan O’Toole (Liverlight): “One of the many triumphs of Fintan O’Toole’s We Don’t Know Ourselves is that he manages to find a form that accommodates the spectacular changes that have occurred in Ireland over the past six decades, which happens to be his life span.” Also, Chevy in the Hole by Kelsey Ronan (Henry Holt and Co.): “the main propulsive engine of the novel becomes a question that often applies to relationships as much as it applies to stories about America’s forgotten and marginalized landscapes: Can we save them with love, or will they simply collapse?” Plus, Life of Che: An Impressionistic Biography by Héctor Germán Oesterheld, illus. by Alberto Breccia and Enrique Breccia (Fantagraphics: Norton): “Oesterheld’s depiction of Guevara is too forgiving, a hagiography rather than a proper work of history.” Lastly, What's So Funny?: A Cartoonist's Memoir by David Sipress (Mariner): “in Sipress’s book, his cartoons act more as punctuation marks to the narrative, written in prose that is also economical and amiable (and occasionally devastating).”

The Guardian reviews Last Resort by Andrew Lipstein (FSG): “You won’t read a more brilliantly executed literary romp this year. But at a certain point you may find yourself longing for something a bit more … well, you know, whatever the opposite of empty is.”

Briefly Noted

LA Times talks with Alex Segura about his superhero noir novel, Secret Identity (Flatiron). CrimeReads also has a Q&A with Segura about “New York, working in comics, and capturing an era.”

Shondaland has a conversation with Tara Isabella Burton about the inspiration behind her new coming-of-age novel, The World Cannot Give (S. & S.).

LA Times visits with Susan Straight, discussing her latest book, Mecca (FSG).

ElectricLit talks with Melissa Febos, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative (Catapult; LJ starred review), about how “writing about trauma is an act of subversion.”

Time has a feature on Sexus Animalis: There Is Nothing Unnatural in Nature by Emmanuelle Pouydebat, illus. byJulie Terrazzoni, trans. by Erik Butler (MIT Press). 

Entertainment Weekly asks: “Has the Harry Potter franchise lost its magic?”

Gizmodo previews the concept art in the forthcoming book, The Art of The Batman by James Field (Abrams), due out April 19th. 

Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Lavie Tidhar discuss the best science fiction and fantasy so far this year, at The Washington Post.

BookRiot shares new releases for the week and read-alikes for Talia Hibbert.

LitHub has 18 books for the week.

The Millions highlights notable new releases for the week.

Kelsey Ronan, debut author of Chevy in the Hole (Henry Holt and Co.), recommends 7 books about Flint and Detroit, Michigan. Also, Peng Shepherd, The Cartographers (Morrow), recommends 7 novels about maps with hidden secrets, for ElectricLit.

Authors On Air

NPR’s Morning Edition mentions Jos Charles’s new book of poetry, a Year & other poems (Milkweed Editions).

The Man Who Fell to the Earth, based on the book by Walter Tevis, gets a trailer. Deadline reports.

Deepak Chopra, MD, Abundance: The Inner Path to Wealth (Harmony: PRH) visits The Daily Show today. Amy Schumer, Arrival Stories: Women Share Their Experiences of Becoming Mothers, ed.with Christy Turlington Burns (Dial Press), will be on The View and The Tonight Show tomorrow. Christina Tosi, Dessert Can Save the World: Stories, Secrets, and Recipes for a Stubbornly Joyful Existence (Harmony), also visits The Tonight Show.

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