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Awards & Buzzy Book News

Nikki Giovanni is named the Writer-In-Resident at the Toni Morrison Writing Program at Prairie View A&M University. Ebony has the scoop.

The 2021 James Tait Black book prizes are announced. Edinburgh International Book Festival has the news.

The 2021 Ned Kelly Awards are announced.

McNally Jackson announced that they will be reprinting paperbacks “devoted to hidden gems.” Lit Hub has the news.

Page to Screen

There are no Page to Screen titles this week.

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews Refugee High: Coming of Age in America by Elly Fishman (New Pr.): "“Refugee High” may not provide the answers, but it contains important messages. Fishman suggests that we ignore our growing xenophobia at our peril, for these students are creative, resilient, adaptive and caring. Her book is also a shout-out to the lasting value of public education." Also, A Black Gaze: Artists Changing How We See by Tina M. Campt (MIT: Random House): "The signal contribution of “A Black Gaze” is its call to active engagement with art that depicts Black people not as objects but as agents. For Black viewers, it offers license to be at home in one’s own skin. For non-Black viewers, it issues an invitation to action, not of a performative sympathy but of rigorous reflection." Plus, Real Estate: A Living Autobiography by Deborah Levy (Bloomsbury): “What a particular pleasure it is to meet her nuanced work on the page through a voice that is witty and bold, masterfully drawing connections between the charged moments of her life.” And, a few more reviews posted today.

NPR reviews Night Bus by Zuo Ma (Drawn and Quarterly: Macmillan): “By scrutinizing the world through "the eyes of another," Zuo Ma explores the porous and surreal boundary between fiction and autobiography, familiar and otherness, human and animal, untamed nature and rampant development.”

Popsugar reviews Fault Lines by Emily Itami (Custom House: HarperCollins): “Fault Lines is a romantic story full of wit and charm, lovingly exposing the cracks in each of its characters' facades. In the end, it shakes each one until they have no choice but to confront their own choices.”

Locus Magazine reviews Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North (Orbit): “Notes from the Burning Age may not feature the sort of easily grasped conceit familiar from some of North’s earlier novels – alter­nate lives, invisibility, world-changing games – but it’s a passionate and committed vision of what we do to nature, and what it can do to us.”

Book Marks has "The Best Reviewed Books of the Week."

Briefly Noted

Nadia Hashimi, author of Sparks Like Stars by (William Morrow: HarperCollins), writes a piece for NPR on “losing her homeland - for the second time” regarding the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.

Clarissa Ward, On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist (Penguin), speaks to NPR about “what it’s like to be a woman reporting on the Taliban.” Kat Chow, Seeing Ghosts (Grand Central), chats with The Margins about “a narrative form of preservation.” The Rumpus features a roundtable discussion with authors Steven Espada Dawson, Elisa Gonzalez, and Gaia Rajan. Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint, Names for Light (Graywolf), speaks to Electric Lit about “writing an experimental memoir about what binds a family together.”

Chicago Review of Books interviews Kira Jane Buxton, author of Feral Creatures (Grand Central) about being seen as a form of survival and The Seattle Times has another interview with the author regarding the main character of her books as “a trash-talking, Cheeto-and-whiskey-loving domesticated crow with the biggest little heart in the animal kingdom.”

Mary L. Trump, The Reckoning: Our Nation’s Trauma and Finding a Way To Heal (St. Martin’s), chats with Salon about how “Democrats need to take the gloves off and get real.” Also, an interview with Rafia Zakaria, Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption (Norton), about “how feminism loses relevance to whiteness.”

Anna Qu, Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor (Catapult), wants people to “know the truth about garment factories” in a conversation with Bitchmedia.

Ruta Sepetys will be coming out with a new book, I Must Betray You (Philomel: Penguin), to be released in Feb 2022. Oprah Daily has more.

Electric Lit has an excerpt of Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket by Hilma Wolitzer (Bloomsbury: Macmillan).

Michelle Jana Chan, author of Song (Unbound), writes about "the power of family to shape your own narrative."

Sarah Jaffe explores the "class and privilege in female comedians' memoirs" for Lit Hub.

Michael Dirda shares the books he read this summer instead of watching television in The Washington Post. 

NPR Life Kit gives a “Beginner’s Guide to the Galaxy” for readers interested in sci-fi and fantasy.

Tor.com lists “Seven Vampire Books for Fans for What We Do in the Shadows” and makes recommendations for Appalachian SFF. 

Lit Hub has “perfect picks for dog lovers.”

Popsugar gives “19 Books That Are Perfect For a Cozy Fall Day.”

Book Riot lists “Romance Novel Awards: Your In-Depth Guide,” “26 of the Best Cozy Mystery Series,” “The Most Translated Books From Every Country in the World,” and “Where to Start Reading Marvel Comics: Your Reading Order.”

The Seattle Times has “5 summer reads before the seasons change.”

CrimeReads shares “The Best New Books Out in Paperback This Month” and "The Best Psychological Thrillers, According to a Clinical Psychologist."

Bustle lists “8 Must-Read New Books Out This Week.”

NYT provides “11 New Books We Recommend This Week” and "Stories Spanning Countries and Generations, by Jo Lloyd, Yoon Choi and Hilma Wolitzer."

Authors on Air

Charles Person, author of The Buses Are A Comin’: Memoir of a Freedom Rider (St. Martin’s), chats about being “the youngest of the original Freedom Riders” on the Book Dreams podcast.

Nawaaz Ahmed, Radiant Fugitives (Counterpoint), speaks with V. V. Ganeshananthan on the Fiction / Non / Fiction podcast about “Islam, sexuality, politics, and publishing his first novel.”

The adaptation of Candice Carty-Williams’ Queenie (Gallery/Scout: S. & S.) for Channel 4 has been delayed. Bustle breaks the news.

Jacob Anderson will star in AMC’s adaptation Interview With the Vampire. AV Club has more.

Author Colleen Hoover, Layla (Montlake: Amazon), is trending on TikTok. Parade has the scoop on why.

Steven Nadler and Lawrence Shapiro, authors of When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People: How Philosophy Can Save Us from Ourselves (Princeton University Press), discuss the "global epidemic of irrational thinking" with the Keen On podcast. 

Matt Bell, author of Appleseed (Custom House: HarperCollins) praises "genre agnosticism" with G. P. Gottlieb on the New Books Network podcast. 

Patricia Engel chats about her book Infinite Country (S. & S. Audio) and "the natural human instinct to migrate" on The Literary Life podcast.

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