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News, Notes, Talk

Authors are canceling events at a Philadelphia library over its mistreatment of Black workers.

Authors including Colson Whitehead, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., and Adam Rutherford are cancelling events at the Free Library of Philadelphia over complaints from Black employees that they have been mistreated and undervalued there. An open letter from Black employees says Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Ready Player One is getting a part two.

Ernest Cline’s young adult novel Ready Player One was one of 2011’s biggest publishing success stories. Nearly ten years later, fans are getting another chance to visit the world of The Oasis. The sequel’s title? You guessed it: Ready Player Two. The first Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Your Francophile kids will want to read the winners of the Prix Albertine Jeunesse.

The Prix Albertine Jeunesse is a prize chosen for children, by children—that is, a reader’s choice award in which people between the ages of three and fourteen vote on their favorite book from a selection of Francophone literature. This award Read more >

By Katie Yee

Phoebe Robinson is partnering with Plume to launch a new imprint called Tiny Reparations Books.

Today, Penguin Random House announced the launch of a new imprint, Tiny Reparations Books, founded by New York Times bestselling author, comedian, actress, and producer Phoebe Robinson. Robinson will be partnering with Plume (a division of Dutton, which is itself Read more >

By Emily Temple

MacDowell drops "Colony" from its name, citing the "occupation and oppression" tied to the term.

The artist’s retreat formerly known as the MacDowell Colony announced today that it would drop the “Colony” from its name going forward and be known simply as MacDowell (which is, I gather, what the cool kids have been calling it Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

There's a new Trump tell-all memoir coming. Just what we need.

The dubious genre of Trump tell-all memoirs has a new member: Melania & Me, written by a previous advisor to Melania Trump, which will be published by the Simon & Schuster imprint Gallery Books on September 1. Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Margaret Atwood tweets support for transgender communities.

Good morning to everyone, but especially to Margaret Atwood, who has enraged transphobic Twitter trolls today with this post. Some science here: “When Sex and Gender Collide.” https://t.co/oOxAsEWJm8 #TransGenderWomen Biology doesn’t deal in sealed Either/Or compartments. We’re all part of Read more >

By Katie Yee

20 new books to fuel your summer reading.

Summer reading had me a blast Summer reading happened so fast I found a book perfect for me Bought a book new as can be… Seriously, friends, what else is there to do on these hot summer days besides belt Read more >

By Katie Yee

The Ayn Rand Institute bootstrapped its way to a PPP Loan of at least $350K.

The Ayn Rand Institute, a nonprofit(??) “devoted to applying Rand’s ideas to current issues and seeking to promote her philosophical principles of reason, rational self-interest and laissez-faire capitalism,” has recently accepted—I assume grudgingly—government assistance to the tune of a Paycheck Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Tin House leads the latest VIDA Count (again), with NYTBR gaining ground.

This year is one of unusually salient statistics and overwhelming numbers. As Marcia Douglas writes in her preface to the newly published 2019 VIDA Count—the tenth iteration of this initiative—both the 2020 census and the uptick in COVID cases remind Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Look inside Oslo's stunning new public library, now open to the public.

On June 18th, Oslo’s new public library, Deichman Bjørvika, opened its doors to the public. Located on Oslo’s waterfront, and spanning six floors and 140,000 square feet, “Norway’s biggest bookshelf” (as its director Knut Skansen calls it) will contain some Read more >

By Emily Temple

Dana Canedy has been named the executive vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster.

Today, Simon & Schuster named Dana Canedy, a former journalist and the administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes (as well as a Pulitzer-winner herself), as its newest executive vice president and publisher. The New York Times reports that Canedy had been under Read more >

By Emily Temple

On Hilary Mantel's birthday, please enjoy her 1988 review of RoboCop.

Today, Dame Hilary Mary Mantel, author of the Booker Prize-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, and the likely future Booker Prize-winning novel The Mirror and the Light, turns 68. But you probably knew that. What you might Read more >

By Emily Temple

How to donate to Liberation Library, an organization that provides books to incarcerated children.

Yesterday, a tweet from Liberation Library, an organization that provides books to incarcerated children (yes, you read that right), went viral. It was a photograph of thank-you letter written by a child in custody, to the organization, expressing gratitude for Read more >

By Olivia Rutigliano

The late John Prine is the first honorary poet laureate of Illinois.

When John Prine died earlier this year, there were a few things his obituary writers agreed on. If you weren’t a huge music fan, you might not have known who he was. If you knew who he was, you undoubtedly Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Important: This season of Search Party features a rare Deborah Eisenberg cameo.

I am a huge fan of Search Party, the formerly-of-TBS-now-of-HBO Max comedy about a group of millennial friends who take it upon themselves to solve the mystery of a college acquaintance’s disappearance… with surprising results! The cast is fantastic, the writing Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Lenny Kravitz announces his memoir, with very sexy results.

Lenny Kravitz—rockstar, progenitor of absurdly beautiful children, and innovator in the field of scarves—announced in a video on Twitter today that his memoir, Let Love Rule, is set for release on October 6. Of course, while “announced” is technically accurate Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

HBO just paid seven figures for the rights to Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half.

At the close of one of the wildest, most hotly-contested rights auctions in recent memory—in which 17 different bidders duked it out for the film and TV rights to Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half—HBO has emerged victorious. The streaming giant will pay Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Master and Margarita.">

Master and Margarita.">"This cannot be good." Baz Luhrmann on producing the maybe-cursed Master and Margarita.

This week, on Australian radio show The History Listen, producer Rosa Ellen asked fellow fans of Bulgakov’s novel to unpack its particular magic and enduring genius. One of those fans is Baz Luhrmann, who is producing an adaptation of the Master and Margarita.">Read more >

By Emily Temple

12 new books for the long weekend.

Somehow Fourth of July weekend is upon us. While you might not be spending it the way you usually do (big family barbecue, a day at the beach, crammed in the crowds trying to watch the Macy’s show), we do Read more >

By Katie Yee