As India’s horrific COVID surge intensifies, a group of authors from around the world (led by the narrative nonfiction writer Sonia Faleiro) have come together to support the essential work of Mission Oxygen India, an organization dedicated to helping hospitals across the country get immediate access to direly-needed oxygen concentrators. Read more
Month: April 2021
‘The Haunting of Alma Fielding’ Is a Ghost Story — and a Tale of Power and Fear
Summerscale’s writing is so inviting, the historical details folded into the narrative so well, that The Haunting of Alma Fielding reads like a novel you don’t want to put down. (The book design is also superb, the typeface somehow evoking something old and mysterious while also being easy on the eyes.) Best of all, it offers a variety of possibilities without definitively landing on one single answer; the book recognizes that, sometimes, the answer to the question “Was it real or was it fake?” is simply “Yes.” Read more
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All the books becoming movies in 2021, including ‘Things Heard & Seen’ and ‘Without Remorse’
Peruse all the books you can read before they become movies this year, from survival thrillers (“Those Who Wish Me Dead”) to sci-fi epics (“Dune”). Read more
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Michelle T. Boone Named President of Poetry Foundation
Boone, a former cultural commissioner for Chicago, will take the helm after tumult over racial justice at the foundation, one of the country’s wealthiest literary organizations. Read more
Congratulations to the Winners of the 2021 Edgar Awards
Today the Mystery Writers of America announced the winners of the 2021 Edgar Awards, one of the mystery world’s premier honors. This year marks the 75th annual presentation of the awards. Read more
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Women’s prize for fiction shortlist entirely first-time nominees
Susanna Clarke, Yaa Gyasi and Patricia Lockwood among the six authors up for the £30,000 award. Read more
Oscar winner ‘Nomadland’ based on book by former Oregon journalist
“Nomadland,” which follows a woman in her 60s as she takes up a nomadic lifestyle after losing everything in the Great Recession, won Best Picture. Its director, Chloé Zhao, won Best Director, becoming the first woman of color and the second woman ever to win that award. Frances McDormand won Best Actress, her third such Oscar. Read more
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Publishers Draw Fire for Signing Trump Officials
Kellyanne Conway, Mike Pence and William Barr have book deals. That is raising new challenges for publishers trying to balance ideological lines with a desire to continue representing the political spectrum. Read more
Danielle Evans has won the 2021 Joyce Carol Oates Prize
Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections and Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, has won The New Literacy Project’s annual Joyce Carol Oates Prize, a $50,000 award that recognizes “a midcareer fiction writer who has earned a distinguished reputation and the approbation and gratitude of readers.” Read more
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Roshan the Camel Brings Books to Homeschooling Children in Rural Pakistan
The school children, who live in remote villages where the streets are too narrow for vehicles, put on their best clothes and rush out to meet Roshan. They crowd around the animal shouting “the camel is here!” Read more
