Vermont publisher Chelsea Green has filed a federal civil lawsuit claiming that U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) stifled free speech when she called on Amazon to curb the spread of COVID-19 misinformation and cited one of Chelsea Green’s books as a source of “dangerous conspiracies.” Read more
Author: GR
Pandemic sparks union activity where it was rare: Bookstores
Labor action has surged in many industries over the past two years, including in bookselling, a business where unions had been rare. Since 2020, employees have unionized or are attempting to do so everywhere from Printed Matter in New York City to Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle and Bookshop Santa Cruz in California. In Minnesota, workers at four Half Price Books stores have announced plans to affiliate with locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Read more
Omar El Akkad wins $100K Scotiabank Giller Prize for novel What Strange Paradise
What Strange Paradise is a novel that tells the story of a global refugee crisis through the eyes of a child. Nine-year-old Amir is the only survivor from a ship full of refugees coming to a small island nation. He ends up with a teenage girl named Vanna, who lives on the island. Even though they don’t share a common language or culture, Vanna becomes determined to keep Amir safe. What Strange Paradise tells both their stories and how they each reached this moment, while asking the questions, “How did we get here?” and “What are we going to do about it?” Read more
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Here are this year’s World Fantasy Award winners
The winners of this year’s World Fantasy Awards were announced this weekend at the World Fantasy Convention in Montreal, Canada. Considered one of the most prestigious honors for fantasy and speculative fiction, the award celebrates writers and artists who published work during the previous calendar year. Previous winners include C.L. Polk, Emma Törzs, and Kij Johnson. Writers Megan Lindholm and Howard Waldrop were also honored at the convention with Lifetime Achievement Awards. Read more
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Is Superman Circumcised? favourite to win Oddest book title of the year
Six books are in the running for the 43rd prize, nominated by members of the book trade, with Curves for the Mathematically Curious up against Hats: A Very Unnatural History, The Life Cycle of Russian Things: From Fish Guts to Fabergé, and Miss, I Don’t Give a Shit: Engaging with Challenging Behaviour in Schools. Read more
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Young Senegalese author wins top French literature prize
A young Senegalese writer unknown to the general public was on Wednesday awarded the Prix Goncourt, France’s leading literature prize, for a novel exploring the destiny of a cursed African author. Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, 31, is the first sub-Saharan African to win the literary award. Read more
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South African author Damon Galgut wins Booker Prize
South African author and playwright Damon Galgut won the Booker Prize on Wednesday for his novel “The Promise”, about a white family’s failed commitment to give their Black maid her own home. Read more
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The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
“…a scintillating story about a motley group of Native American booksellers haunted by the spirit of a customer … More than a gripping ghost story, this offers profound insights into the effects of the global pandemic and the collateral damage of systemic racism. It adds up to one of Erdrich’s most sprawling and illuminating works to date. Read more
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Justice Dept. Sues Penguin Random House Over Simon & Schuster Deal
The Biden administration on Tuesday sued to stop Penguin Random House, the largest publisher in the United States, from acquiring its rival Simon & Schuster, as part of a new drive in Washington against corporate consolidation. Read more
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Shoot the Moonlight Out by William Boyle
Boyle emerges not just as a consummate crime writer but as a poet of the underclass, unwaveringly portraying lives gone wrong but still finding a little moonlight “spilling its light on the cracks in the sidewalks and all the cracked hearts.” Read more
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