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Awards

Aisha Sabatini Sloan wins the 2022 Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction for her book, Borealis (Coffee House Press: Consortium). Lambda Literary has a Q&A with the winning author.

Julia Parry wins the 2022 RSL Christopher Bland Prize. 

The 2022 Desmond Elliott Prize shortlist is announced.

The Rachel Funari Prize 2022 shortlist is announced.

The Australian Literature Society Gold Medal 2022 shortlist is announced.

The 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards were announced featuring winners from the Marvel Universe, including Spider-Man: No Way Home, with assoc. titles.

Reviews

NYT reviews The Kingdom of Sand by Andrew Holleran (Farrar): “Now, at almost 80 years of age, he has produced a novel remarkable for its integrity, for its readiness to embrace difficult truths and for its complex way of paying homage to the passing of time.” And, Living and Dying with Marcel Proust by Christopher Prendergast (Europa): “Prendergast… has drawn on his encyclopedic knowledge to cohere Proust’s wide-ranging, scattered references: everything from the crucial device of metaphor to a wonderfully playful chapter on food, especially — naturally — pastry.” And, Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen (Morrow): “is an entertaining, luxurious read — but beneath its glitz and flash, it is also a shrewd deconstruction of the American dream and the myth of the model minority.” Also, Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley (Knopf; LJ starred review): “Mottley writes with a lyrical abandon that reminds us she was once Oakland’s youth poet laureate.” And, Nuclear Family by Joseph Han (Counterpoint): “Han never ceases to surprise. Once you get used to his prose, he breaks form, redacting paragraphs, building towers out of words only to topple them pages later. And his comedic timing is always punctual, full of cackle-inducing humor when we need it most.” And, Fabric: The Hidden History of the Material World by Victoria Finlay (Pegasus): “Finlay’s writing is at once technical, historical and deeply personal. Like a skilled weaver, she takes many disparate threads and constructs a compelling narrative as informative as it is emotionally engaging.” Also, The Visitors by Jessi Jezewska Stevens (And Other Stories): “There is something fablelike in the deployment of the childbearing body as a stand-in for the wealth of a nation, symbolic to a fault.” And, Voice of the Fish: A Lyric Essay by Lars Horn (Graywolf Pr.): “The body always adapts, the book argues. As fluid as gender, as a changing tide, it shifts in response to pressures, which are detailed in vivid accounts here: transmasculine rebirth, transphobic locations in Russia and Florida, violence and injury, and the inevitability of disability.” And, Corrections in Ink: A Memoir by Keri Blakinger (St. Martin’s): “Keri Blakinger’s brave, brutal memoir, Corrections in Ink, is a riveting story about suffering, recovery and redemption.” Plus, Fire Island: A Century in the Life of an American Paradise by Jack Parlett (Hanover Square Pr.): "At its best, this book enacts a glancing yet trenchant meditation on community, ‘ecological precarity’ and the fugitive links between place and sexuality.” And, Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land by Taylor Brorby (Liveright: Norton): “Brorby has written not only a truly great memoir, but also a frighteningly relevant one that speaks to the many battles we still have left to fight.” Finally, Raising Raffi: The First Five Years by Keith Gessen (Viking): “Gessen’s short book is absorbing not because it delivers answers, beyond bland comments like ‘time is the only solution.’ It’s absorbing because Gessen is a calm and observant writer — if he were a singer, he’d always come in a bit behind the beat — who raises, and struggles with, the right questions about himself and the world.”

NPR reviews Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?: A Memoir by Séamas O’Reilly (Little, Brown): “It's rare to read about good fathers in memoirs, and O'Reilly's portrait, complete with bits about how his dad is ‘God's one, true, perfect miser,’ who was nevertheless driven to "make sure we never felt poorer than anyone else," is hilarious and moving.”

The Washington Post reviews Salka Valka by Halldor Laxness, trans. by Philip Roughton (Archipelago): “Laxness’s characters are rough and honest, and Salka Valka is one of the most empathetic portraits of a girl and a woman that I’ve read by a male author. This new translation is readable and compelling.”

Briefly Noted

NYT has a feature and interview with Geraldine Brooks about her forthcoming novel, Horse (Viking; LJ starred review), and the very old house she stayed in during the pandemic.

Bustle has a Q&A with by Sloane Crosley about her new novel, Cult Classic (MCD), which is the Bustle Book Club pick for June, and her forthcoming book, Grief Is For People, due out in 2023.

Time talks with Linda Holmes about her new novel, Flying Solo (Ballantine; LJ starred review).

FoxNews talks with Greg Laurie, author of Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus: The Spiritual Biography of Rock and Roll (Salem Books), about how “Beatle John Lennon turned to God.”

People has a sample for Rosie Perez narrating from the new audiobook version of Ronnie Spector’s Be My Baby (Macmillan Audio), which comes out today.

NYT writes about new book discovery apps that aim to replicate the in person browsing experience.

The Guardian shares perspectives from the Hay Festival, as writers discuss “who can write about whom.”

LA Times explores “how Anton Chekhov became the playwright of the moment.”

CrimeReads asks: “Who’s Queer in Christie?” Plus, James Patterson writes about his first literary party.  

Bustle has 10 must-read books for the week.

The Millions has notable new releases for the week.

Vulture lists “The Best Comedy Books of 2022 (So Far).”

Buzzfeed shares “20 Amazing New Science Fiction And Fantasy Beach Reads.”

ElectricLit offers “8 Queer Novels That’ll Keep You Up at Night.”

Book Riot lists the 100 most influential queer books of all time, and 8 historical fiction books set during and after WWII.

LitHub has 21 books for the week, 9 short story collections for summer," and announces the guest editors of the 'Best American' series for 2022.

Authors On Air

The Hunger Games Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, based on the books by Suzanne Collins, gets a trailer.

Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman gets a trailer and an August 5th release date.

An adaptation of Cheryl Strayed's Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar (Vintage), is picked up as a series by Hulu.  Deadline reports. 

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