This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Avery / TarcherPerigee, publisher of 50 WAYS TO GET A JOB by Dev Aujla.
The Hate U Give Is Re-shooting With Riverdale Star
Late yesterday, we received word that the adaptation will be re-shot with Riverdale star K.J. Apa who will replace actor Kian Lawley as the protagonist’s boyfriend. Though the film had wrapped up shooting, the switch was necessitated by the discovery of a video that showed Lawley making racial slurs. Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give is about racism, so that was a “no” for keeping Lawley on the cast.
Man Booker Reverses Decision On Nationality Listing
We have an update on the news about the Man Booker changing long listed author Wu Ming-Yi’s nationality from Taiwan to Taiwan, China. After receiving criticism for bowing to pressure from China, the Man Booker’s organizers announced that they would list the country/territory of authors up for the prize, rather than their nationalities, in the future. Wu’s listing will go back to “Taiwan.” Of the decision, Wu wrote that the “prize has affirmed that the will of literature is based on honesty and freedom.”
Joan Silber Wins PEN/Faulkner Award
Silber won the award for Fiction for her book of linked stories, Improvement. Last month, she also won the National Book Critics Circle fiction prize for Improvement. The story is one told from multiple points of view, circling a single mother living in New York with a boyfriend who conducts a cigarette smuggling scheme.