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Awards & News

The Women’s Prize for Fiction announces its shortlist. The Guardian has coverage. Watch the announcement here. The winner will be named June 15th.

Sonia Sanchez is the recipient of the 2022 Jackson Poetry Prize.

The Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) announced the shortlists for the 2022 Booksellers’ Choice Book of the Year Awards.

Audrey Molloy wins 2021 Anne Elder Award.

The 2022 Oregon Book Award winners are announced.

The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) announces the 2022 Dagger Award longlist.

Nobel Literature Prize winning poet Louise Glück will publish her first prose narrative, Marigold and Rose (FSG), in October. CBC has coverage.

“In a lawsuit, a group of Texas library patrons says a book ban amounts to censorship,” NPR reports.

Reviews

NPR reviews Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher (Tor; LJ starred review): “Nettle & Bone rounds up all the secondary (and let's face it, more interesting) characters of fantasy lore and gives them the chance to save the day on their own terms. I have no doubt I will return to it often when I'm in the mood for a fractured fariytale.” And, Tasha: A Son's Memoir by Brian Morton (Avid Reader Pr: S. & S.): “It's a wonder that with themes this heavy, Tasha is such a pleasure to read, oscillating between past and present, horror and hilarity, the big social picture and one son's ongoing attempt to work out some stuff with his mother.”

The Washington Post reviews City on Fire by Don Winslow (Morrow; LJ starred review): “it’s Winslow’s ways with character, as well as his fluid narrative and highly visual scene-setting, that suggest this novel, the first in a planned trilogy, could well end up in the American-mob canon along with the works of Puzo, Scorsese and Chase.” And, Finding Me by Viola Davis (HarperOne): “While Finding Me can be docked for some loose ends, stilted prose and superfluous anecdotes, Davis’s journey overpowers those nitpicks.” And, Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel (Redhook): “Patel resets the balance of power, creating an unforgettable heroine who understands that it isn’t necessarily kings or gods who change history but a disgraced woman who can look upon a group of girls and see ‘a child, freer than her mother had been’.”

NYT has short reviews of four new releases, plus more in today's book review.

Briefly Noted

LibraryReads and Library Journal offer read-alikes for City on Fire by Don Winslow (Morrow; LJ starred review), the buzziest book of the week.  Entertainment Weekly interviews Winslow about his new book, and CrimeReads chats with the author about “New England roots, Greek poetry, and clams in broth.”

Barbara Hoffert has a new “Prepub Alert” in LJ.

NPR talks with Brian K. Vaughn about this year’s return of his award-winning science fiction comic Saga (Image Comics).

ElectricLit talks with Zachary Lazar about his book, The Apartment on Calle Uruguay (Catapult), which weaves “religion, politics, and history to create a vivid portrait of immigrants and exiles building, moving, and grieving home amidst the turbulent Trump presidency.”

USA Today highlights Alton Brown’s Good Eats: The Final Years (Abrams), and insists he has “atoned” for his slow cooker lasagna recipe.

NYT has a feature on Vauhini Vara and her forthcoming dystopian debut, The Immortal King Rao, due out next week from Norton. 

Wired has a feature on The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe (Harper Voyager; LJ starred review), and Afrofuturism.

People shares details from Incomparable Grace: JFK in the Presidency by Mark K Updegrove (Dutton). Updegrove also discusses his book, influences, and his favorite presidential biographies with Parade.

USA Today has a cover reveal for Stephen King's new story, Finn, on Scribd.

Alma Katsu, The Fervor (Putnam; LJ starred review), pens an essay about why she “finally” wrote a main character who shares her Asian American ethnicity, at CrimeReads.

Ebony shares an excerpt from Finding Me by Viola Davis (HarperOne).

CBC previews David A. Robertson's forthcoming novel, The Theory of Crows (Harper Perennial), due out in September.

Datebook writes about the legacy of Seven Stories Press.

ElectricLit has “The Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Books for Summer 2022.”

Time has “10 Books to Help You Get Over a Reading Slump.”

OprahDaily has “12 Moving Memoirs By Black Celebrities.”

Authors On Air

NPR’s All Things Considered talks with Danica Roem about her new “memoir-meets-manifesto”, Burn the Page: A True Story of Torching Doubts, Blazing Trails, and Igniting Change (Viking; LJ starred review).

NPR’s Fresh Air chats with CNN anchor Zain E Asher about her memoir, Where the Children Take Us: How One Family Achieved the Unimaginable (Amistad: HarperCollins), and the “tragedy that helped drive her success.”

Korean-American Angelino authors Steph Cha, Your House Will Pay (Ecco: Harper; LJ starred review), and John Cho, Troublemaker (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), whose books center on the time of 1992’s LA uprising, reflect on “Sai-i-gu” with NPR’s Code Switch. 

Farah Jasmine Griffin, Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature (Norton), gives her “Brief But Spectacular” take on Black life and literature for the PBS NewsHour.

Viola Davis, Finding Me (HarperOne), discusses the shame she experienced growing up due to poverty and violence on GMA.

GMA notes that the new movie version of the musical Wicked, based on the book by Gregory Maguire, will be split into two films. Tor also covers the news.

The Batman, with assoc. titles, will return for a sequel. The Hollywood Reporter confirms. No release date has been set.

Sophie Liard, The Folding Lady: Tools and Tricks for Making the Most of Your Space Room by Room (Harper Design), will be on Live with Kelly and Ryan tomorrow. Hannah Brown, God Bless This Messy Journal: A Guide to Embracing the Beautiful, Messy You (Harper Design), will be on with Tamron Hall. Plus, Molly Shannon, Hello, Molly!, written with Sean Wilsey (Ecco), will visit James Cordon.

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