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News, Notes, Talk

Deesha Philyaw has won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Deesha Philyaw has won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for her debut short story collection The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. The collection was chosen for this year’s prize by judges Charles Finch, Bernice L. McFadden, and Alexi Zentner, Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Watch this endearingly low-budget Soviet TV adaptation of Lord of the Rings.

Craving some new Lord of the Rings-related media? While you wait for the Amazon Prime series, have a laugh and watch this 30-year-old television adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring, courtesy of Russian channel 5TV. The 1991 film aired once, Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

Elizabeth Strout's next novel is coming this fall.

Your Tuesday book news of note: Olive Kitteridge and My Name is Lucy Barton author Elizabeth Strout has a new novel set for publication. Here’s the description of Oh William!, out from Random House on October 19: Oh William! . Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Get a tour of Leonora Carrington's Mexico City home and workspace.

Today would have been the 104th birthday of everyone’s favorite surrealist painter-cum-novelist, Leonora Carrington. To celebrate, I recommend spending your lunch break watching Leonora Carrington and the House of Fear (1992), a documentary based around a trip to Carrington’s Mexico Read more >

By Emily Temple

James McBride has won the inaugural Gotham Book Prize for literature that celebrates NYC.

Last year, when New York City was the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in America, Bradley Tusk and Howard Wolfson decided to create a new annual award, the Gotham Book Prize, as part of an effort to “honor New York Read more >

By Emily Temple

Here are 18 fresh titles for your new books Tuesday.

There are a few things in this life that we are told we can be certain of: death, taxes, blah blah. Also someone once said that the sun will come up tomorrow. (Sure.) You know what else is guaranteed though? Read more >

By Katie Yee

Self-soothe with these recordings of artists reading everyday texts.

There’s much to celebrate at the moment: it’s spring, vaccinations are becoming widely available, Cadbury Cream Eggs are steeply discounted at Walgreen’s… But in case you’re still looking for a way to quiet your racing mind, may I recommend Oral Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Here are the winners of the 2021 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards.

Today, the Cleveland Foundation announced the winners of its 86th Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, an annual prize that recognizes “books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures.” The Read more >

By Emily Temple

Here is the 2021-22 class of Cullman Center Fellows.

Today, the New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers announced its new class of Fellows, selected from a pool of 506 applicants from 48 countries. The class of 2021 is as follows: Academics: Read more >

By Walker Caplan

N+1 has established a new fiction prize in honor of Anthony Veasna So.

N+1 has announced a new fiction prize in honor of n+1 contributor and brilliant short story writer Anthony Veasna So, who died in 2020. The newly established Anthony Veasna So Fiction Prize is an annual $5,000 award granted to a Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Here are the best reviewed books of the week.

Kaitlyn Greenidge’s Libertie, Sharon Stone’s The Beauty of Living Twice, Melissa Febos’ Girlhood, and Hanif Abdurraqib’s A Little Devil in America all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes Read more >

By Book Marks

In the market for an illuminated manuscript? Got £8 million?

On April 23, “one of the most important collections of illuminated manuscripts and early prints to have appeared at auction” will go on sale at Christie’s. This collection, the private collection of late philanthropists and collectors Elaine and Alexandre P. Read more >

By Walker Caplan

The Cuomo administration has finally released information about his bizarre book deal.

Last night, the Cuomo administration finally released documents to The Buffalo News regarding Governor Andrew Cuomo’s book American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic. Buffalo News reports that they requested the documents in August 2020; the administration had blamed Read more >

By Walker Caplan

11 honest ways that actually describe the value of a book deal.

Money is like sex. Everybody wants it, most people have it, and nobody wants to talk about it. This resistance to transparency also applies to publishing (which is otherwise not like sex): Aside from last year’s brief flurry of #PublishingPaidMe Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

FYI: Geoffrey Chaucer (probably) didn't invent April Fools' Day.

Today, and every year on April the first, we curse Geoffrey Chaucer. Why? Because he is (supposedly) personally responsible for the two worst holidays (“holidays”) known to humankind/the internet. I am referring, as you no doubt know, to Valentine’s Day Read more >

By Emily Temple

Read Haruki Murakami’s writing advice for incoming college students.

Today, Haruki Murakami cheered on incoming arts students in a speech at the entrance ceremony for his alma mater Waseda University in Tokyo, expressing his joy at being able to celebrate with them in person. And he also gave some Read more >

By Walker Caplan