Author: Sharifah Williams

Literary Agency Dedicated To Diverse Voices Receives Major Grant

The Good Agency, a new literary agency dedicated to championing under-represented voices in publishing, is receiving a grant for over half a million pounds. The grant comes from Arts Council England as part of ACE’s Ambition for Excellence Project, which offers grants funded by the National Lottery. ACE literature director Sarah Crown called the grant “a significant first step in the Arts Council’s commitment to promoting and sustaining diversity in the publishing sector.”

The Writing Community Aids Matthew Salesses’ Family

Individuals from the Asian American writing community are working to aid author Matthew Salesses’ wife, Cathreen, who was diagnosed with cancer. The diagnosis arrived shortly after the birth of the Salesses’ second child. Author Margaret Rhee has organized a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the family as Cathreen undergoes treatment in South Korea for stomach cancer.

Ovid Pardoned For Mysterious Crimes

Rome’s city council has lifted a sentence that banished Ovid from Rome. The pardon arrived on the 2,000th anniversary of the poet’s death. It’s remains unclear what crime he committed that sent him to a remote town on the Black Sea. Of the crime, Ovid wrote that he “must be silent about” it, lest he “re-open the wounds.”

We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter.

Season 1 of our new podcast series Annotated is complete! Each episode is about 20 minutes long and is great for fans of podcasts like This American Life. Go here to check it out, or just click the image below:

3,500 Occult Manuscripts Will Be Digitized

The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown donated €300,000 to Amsterdam’s Ritman Library (the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica House of Living Books), enabling the library to digitize thousands of “pre-1900 texts on alchemy, astrology, magic, and theosophy,” said Thu-Huong Ha at Quartz. The digitized manuscripts will be made freely available online.

2018 PEN America Literary Awards Longlists

The 2018 PEN America Literary Awards Longlists were announced. The awards cover fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, essays, science writing, sports writing, translation, and more. Titles that made it on the list include Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang, My Soul Looks Back: A Memoir by Jessica B. Harris, and Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou. Click the link for the full lists.

The Hate U Give: The Most Searched-For Book On Goodreads In 2017

Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give was the most searched-for book on Goodreads this year, according to data provided by Goodreads. The New York Times bestseller remains a buzzy title, most recently encountering controversy over a banning of the book by a Texas school district. The story follows a 16-year-old black girl who witnesses the death of her childhood friend at the hands of police.

We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter.

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This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by The Love Letters of Abelard & Lily by Laura Creedle:

Roxane Gay Signs Comic Book Deal

You can scroll down the feed to learn more about it and get the reactions, but, in essence, Roxane Gay signed a deal for a six-episode series about three generations of black women master thieves working together on a heist. Epic. Gay has previously worked in comics, writing Black Panther: World of Wakanda with Ta-Nehisi Coates before it was unexpectedly canceled.

Literary Twitter Reacts To Article About Jane Austen’s Marital Status

When The Washington Post decided to celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday by sharing an article not so much about her talents as a writer, but about her talents as they relate to her spinsterhood, they sparked the ire of literary Twitter. The title of the piece is “Jane Austen was the master of the marriage plot. But she remained single.” You can bet authors, celebrities, and Austen fans showed up to lampoon both title and article.

Travel Guides For African Americans In The Segregated U.S. Reissued

The Green Books–a series of travel books written for African Americans traveling in the segregated US–have been reprinted with sales topping 10,000 copies. The series listed the places black people were allowed to stay, shop, and eat. The first edition was published in 1936 by Harlem postal worker Victor Hugo Green, and the series continued to be published until the end of legal segregation. The books depict a practical reality of the abstract concept of segregation for those who didn’t experience it firsthand, said Nat Gertler, publisher at About Comics, and the individual behind reprints of the Green Books.

Don’t forget! We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter.

The Little Women Miniseries Trailer Is Out

We got a 30-second peek at the Little Women miniseries courtesy of a new trailer. Angela Lansbury stars as Aunt March, alongside Maya Hawke as Jo, Emily Watson as Marmee, Willa Fitzgerald as Meg, Annes Elwy as Beth, Kathryn Newton as Amy, and Jonah Hauer-King as Laurie. The PBS/BBC miniseries airs on PBS on May 13, 2018.

“Cat Person” Author’s Debut Book Reaches $1 Million At Auction

A new book from the author of the viral short story “Cat Person” is reportedly reaching $1 million dollars at auction. Kristen Roupenian’s debut short story collection, You Know You Want This, sold to a UK publisher for a “high five figure sum,” but in the U.S. 11 bidders have pushed the price tag over $1 million. Originally published in the New Yorker, “Cat Person” follows a college student’s awful sexual episode with a misogynist.

James Patterson Ups His Holiday Bookstore Bonus Program

This year, author James Patterson increased the total dollar amount of his Holiday Bookstore Bonus Program by $100,00 for a total pool of $350,000. He also more than doubled the number of booksellers who will receive a bonus for a total of 320. Recipients include booksellers and bookstore owners at stores in areas hit by hurricanes and wildfires, as well as established bookstores like Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon.

And don’t forget–we’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year! Click here to enter.

Today in Books is sponsored by Running Press Book Publishers.

Smash the patriarchy this holiday season with great gifts for your favorite females from Running Press. Give the gifts of confidence, creativity, humor, magic, and self-care with books for every woman in your life: YOU ARE A BADASS for her entrepreneurial spirit, PATTERN BEHAVIOR for some nostalgic laughs, PRACTICAL MAGIC for weekend witches, FEMINIST ICON CROSS-STITCH for year-round craftivism, and SLOW BEAUTY for natural and nourishing mindfulness.

New Novel From Zora Neale Hurston

In spring 2018, we’re getting a new book by Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” was unpublished when Hurston died in 1960. The story is about “the last known survivor of the slave trade who was illegally smuggled from Africa on the last slave ship to the U.S.” Hurston, who was an anthropologist as well as a writer, based the novel on her interviews with a survivor of the slave trade who told her about his capture and bondage fifty years after the slave trade was outlawed.

Amandla Stenberg To Star In Darkest Minds Adaptation

Amandla Stenberg will star in a film adaptation of Alexandra Bracken’s YA dystopian novel The Darkest Minds. The story follows 16-year-old Ruby who’s on the run from a government “rehabilitation camp” for children with abilities. In her search for a safe haven, she joins up with a group of similarly afflicted kids. The film will be directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2).

Authors Guild Releases Report On Translation Pay (It’s Not Great)

The Authors Guild released a report on working conditions for translators in the U.S. According to the report, 65% of literary translators earned less than $20,000 in gross income in 2016 with only about 8% earning $60,000-$100,000. The survey also noted that income for literary translators hasn’t changed significantly over the past five years. While only 39% reported spending more than half of their working time on translation projects, only 17% reported earning more than half of their income strictly from translation work.

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Prepare For More Scandinavian Lifestyle Titles

Make room, hygge, there are some new kids on the block. Namely lykke (happiness), lagom (not too much, not too little), and dostadning (uh, death cleaning). The New York Times profiled three books shuffling for space alongside still-trending hygge, which is the booknerd-friendly Danish word for coziness: The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People; Lagom: The Swedish Art of Living a Balanced, Healthy Life; and The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Make Your Loved Ones’ Lives Easier and Your Own Life More Pleasant. You can bet this isn’t the last time we see those words in the book world.

Wait, There’s A Tolkien Movie?

Nicholas Hoult will star as J.R.R. Tolkien in a film that explores the author’s formative years. Tolkien, which just wrapped filming, follows the Lord of the Rings author into the outbreak of World War I, delves into his friendship with a group of outcasts, and, in effect, explores the inspiration for his Middle-earth novels. The film also stars Lily Collins as Tolkien’s wife, Edith, and is directed by Dome Karukoski.

The Serpent King Will Be Adapted

Jeff Zentner’s The Serpent King has been optioned for film and television, according to a Twitter post from producer Matt Sutherland. The Young Adult novel follows a group of outcasts preparing to graduate high school and leave their small town.

We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter.

Today in Books is sponsored by David Kranes, abracadabra, University of Nevada Press.

Abracadabra begins with Mark Goodson, a seemingly well-adjusted married man, disappearing during a magic act. It falls to a former professional football player, Elko Wells, to uncover the far darker story of Mark’s marriage and family and weave together a story at once compelling and true. Magicians and misdirection, gambling, down-on-one’s-luck, the crazed sense of possibility and impossibility, mistaken identity, impersonators and body doubles, people acting bizarrely with all sorts of chaos, and overlaps thrown in for good measure. The twists this plot takes are all but impossible to anticipate. Reading Abracadabra is deliciously magical.

Amazon Releases Year In Books List

This Year in Books celebrated the books that defined 2017, and highlighted some of the year’s most-read books. It probably comes as no surprise that Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale received that distinction in the Fiction genre. Nonfiction’s most-read book was Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. These picks reflect customers’ favorite Kindle and Audible books. Check out the page for all sorts of Amazon-gleaned data for 2017.

A Predictive Keyboard Writes A Harry Potter Story

Using J.K. Rowling’s books, a predictive keyboard wrote a new Harry Potter story and it is good stuff. “Good” meaning hilarious. The story is titled, Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash. Here’s a taste: “He saw Harry and immediately began to eat Hermione’s family. Ron’s Ron shirt was just as bad as Ron himself.” Pure gold.

The Seattle Public Library Tweets Criminal Justice Reform

The Seattle Public Library announced on Twitter that they teamed with some of the city’s legal advocates to discuss criminal justice, and equity and inclusion. What followed was a thread sharing facts, information, and resources on the racial disparities present in our criminal justice system. If you want to join in and share facts from reputable sources, tag @SPLBuzz and use the #criminaljustice hashtag through the end of the year.

We’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year. Click here to enter, or just click the image below.

Nimona Creator To Reboot She-Ra For Netflix

You read right. The Eisner Award-winning creator of Nimona and Lumberjanes, Noelle Stevenson, is showrunning a She-Ra reboot for Netflix. The series is being described as “an epic and timely tale that celebrates female friendship and empowerment, led by a warrior princess tailor made for today.” Netflix members worldwide will get the She-Ra reboot in 2018. May it be as wonderful as Nimona.

Feminism Declared Merriam-Webster’s Word Of The Year

Merriam-Webster wasn’t about to let Dictionary.com give all the side-eye by naming “complicit” their word of the year. So MW announced “feminism” as their 2017 selection. Alright, it isn’t a competition, and 2017 has given us enough side-eye to go around and then some. News coverage of the Women’s March on Washington D.C. led to a spike in look-ups for feminism, according to MW. Searches spiked again when Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s advisor, said she didn’t consider herself a feminist, and again around the releases of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale and the Wonder Woman film.

The 2018 Poem-A-Day Series

The Academy of American Poets announced its selection of 12 guest editors for the 2018 Poem-a-Day series. Each guest judge will curate a month of poems for the daily poetry series sharing previously unpublished poems by today’s poets. The guest judges include poet laureate of the United States Tracy K. Smith, Pushcart Prize recipient Kaveh Akbar, and Lamba Literary Award-winner Dawn Lundy Martin.

And, in case you missed it, we’re giving away a stack of our 20 favorite books of the year! Click here to enter.

Today in Books is sponsored by Running Press Book Publishers.

Smash the patriarchy this holiday season with great gifts for your favorite females from Running Press. Give the gifts of confidence, creativity, humor, magic, and self-care with books for every woman in your life: YOU ARE A BADASS for her entrepreneurial spirit, PATTERN BEHAVIOR for some nostalgic laughs, PRACTICAL MAGIC for weekend witches, FEMINIST ICON CROSS-STITCH for year-round craftivism, and SLOW BEAUTY for natural and nourishing mindfulness.

Ready Player One Is Getting A Sequel

During a Facebook Live event debuting the second trailer for the film adaptation of Ready Player One, author Ernest Cline confirmed that he’s working on a sequel to the book. Set in 2045, Ready Player One follows teenager Wade Watts who’s trying to survive and unlock secrets in a virtual utopia known as the OASIS. No word on when the sequel will be published, but you can catch Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the first book in theaters March 2018.

Gabriel García Márquez’s Archive Goes Digital

The Harry Ransom center at the University of Texas has digitized about half of Gabriel García Márquez’s archive, and made it freely available online. Included in the author’s collection are drafts and other material relating to all of his major books, including One Hundred Years of Solitude. Although García Márquez’s work is still under copyright, his estate allowed the digitization and distribution of the archive. (You can go straight to the archive here.)

4-Year-Old Reads 100 Books In One Day

In small but mighty news, a 4-year-old boy read 100 books in one day. Chicagoan Caleb Green’s parents streamed the young bibliophile’s reading marathon on Facebook Live. Caleb told his parents it had to be 100 books–no less–so friends of the family dropped by with more books for him to read. You can watch videos of Caleb’s reading marathon in the article (they are adorable).

Today in Books is sponsored by Penguin Random House Audio.

Listening to an audiobook can bring family and friends together this holiday season. Listen to Turtles All the Way Down by John Green on your next family road trip and discuss the important themes of the story. Or, listen to Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak with your friends at book club to prepare for the holiday season. Connect, listen, and discuss with audiobooks from Penguin Random House Audio.

This edition of Today in Books is sponsored by Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi:

Big Little Lies Season Two Is Officially Happening

HBO made it official–the network announced that Big Little Lies, based on the bestselling novel by Liane Moriarty, is returning for a second season. The season will span seven episodes starring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, and will be directed entirely by Andrea Arnold. The first season of the show covered all of the original material in the book, but auditions are underway for four new characters appearing next season.

The First Jurassic World Trailer Is Out

Dino DNA! We got a look at the first trailer for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the new movie in the Michael Crichton adaptation franchise. The sequel follows a rescue op to save the dinosaurs from Isla Nublar, which is about to explode, as the trailer exposition tells us. Revisit Chris Pratt as Owen Grady, Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire Dearing, and who could forget Jeff Goldblum as sharp-as-a-tack Ian Malcolm? Lots of explosions, and cardio, and dinosaurs both big and small (and deadly).

These Books Could Be Worth A Pretty Penny

Quick! To the shelves! A roundup of valuable books you might have at home priced a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone at £50,000 (about $67,000)…but it has to be a hardcover with the numbers 1-10 printed on the title page. Check out the list to find out how much a first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit or Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit will get you.