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News & Awards

PBS Books has launched the national PBS Reader’s Club, featuring inaugural pick Horse by Geraldine Brooks (Viking; LJ starred review).  Infodocket has details. PW also has coverage. 

The Writers’ Prize, formerly known as the Rathbones Folio Prize, announces its shortlist, including titles by Zadie Smith and Paul Murray. The Guardian has coverage.

Jeremy McCarter has been named literary executor of playright Thornton Wilder’s estate; he is the first non-family member to serve in the role. Wilder’s Our Town is coming to Broadway this year, and Hello, Dolly!, the musical based on Wilder’s play The Matchmaker, gets a London revival this summer.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) Grand Master nominees are announced. Locus has details.

Scholastic names Haji Glover CFO. Publishing Perspectives reports. 

The April 16 publication of Salman Rushdie‘s Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder (Random) has postponed the trial of Rushdie’s alleged attacker. Publishing Perspectives reports. 

Reviews

NYT reviews My Friends by Hisham Matar (Random): “Readers encountering Matar for the first time will find in My Friends a masterly literary meditation on his lifelong themes. For those who already know his work, the effect is amplified tenfold”; Inverno by Cynthia Zarin (Farrar): “The elegance and incantatory power of Zarin’s prose, along with her virtuosity at observation, are undeniable, but, like many original works, Inverno resists easy description”; and Making It in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the U.S.A. (And How It Got That Way) by Rachel Slade (Pantheon): “Slade’s key insight, and possibly the strongest argument for reviving domestic manufacturing, is that it is how we innovate.”

Briefly Noted

LA Times talks with Ben Rothenberg about his new biography, Naomi Osaka: Her Journey to Finding Her Power and Her Voice (Dutton). 

Award-winning poet Cynthia Zarin discusses her new novel, Inverno (Farrar), with Shondaland. Claire Oshetsky talks about the origins of their new novel, Poor Deer (Ecco).

The Rumpus talks with Chin-Sun Lee about her debut novel, Upcountry (Unnamed Pr.), “class, real estate and labor, crafting characters.”

The Millions previews “Must-Read Poetry: Winter 2024.”

CBC shares “30 Canadian books to read in winter 2024.”

It’s BookTok day over at BookRiot, featuring coverage on its reader influence. 

The Guardian rounds up the best thrillers of the month. 

LitHub highlights new books out this week. 

BookRiot has notable new releases of the week. 

ElectricLit shares “7 Novels Across the World About Turbulent Coming of Age.”

The Atlantic offers some tear jerking reading recommendations. 

Chris McGinley, Once These Hills (Shotgun Honey), discusses Appalachian literature and noir at CrimeReads. 

Vox explores how Leon Uris’s 1958 bestselling epic Exodus and its film adaptation influenced American views on Israel.

People shares an excerpt from Boy George’s new book, Karma: My Autobiography (Mango), which publishes this week.

Tor shares an excerpt from A.G. Slatter’s forthcoming dark fantasy, The Briar Book of the Dead (Titan), due out February 13.

Authors on Air

Vulture previews “15 Book-to-Screen Adaptations to Add to Your 2024 Reading List.”

Ebony highlights Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, which premiered yesterday on HBO.

Ann Patchett booktalks her two freshly banned titles on Instagram.

Newly launched Readyverse Studios is set to bring Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One franchise to the metaverse. Deadline reports.

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