Hot News This Week
February 22, 2024
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| Harvard Book Store began the year with an inspired window display dedicated to The School of Life, highlighting them as “a resource for helping us understand ourselves,” especially as “the winter begins to wear at us and considerations of ‘resolutions’ are fading.”
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“A treat of a book that combines the comparative mythology of Karen Armstrong with the deeply resonant poetical prose of Robin Wall Kimmerer. . . . Truly, a book that deserves a place on everyone’s shelf.” — Mira Akbar, Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe (Bend, OR)
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“As she takes us into the world of catfishing and online scams, Holmes will make you laugh and cringe on the same page! The title grabbed me (because of course it did) and the book didn’t let me go until I’d finished it. Reading about Holmes’s online escapades had me in tears of laughter.” — Andrea Richardson, Fountain Bookstore (Richmond, VA)
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| Poet Omotara James on NPR’s Morning Edition
Poet Omotara James appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition on February 21 to discuss her debut book, Song of My Softening, which NPR’s Leila Fadel calls a “tender, beautiful, stark, painful” collection of poems. “What the work of the book is,” James tells Fadel, “is to transform my experiences into art. And when I titled the book Song Of My Softening, that’s because it takes a lot more strength to be vulnerable than it does to be hard.”
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| Celebrating Three Major Award Contenders
We’re thrilled to report a wave of good awards news for Consortium publishers:
Master by Simon Shieh (Sarabande Books) is a finalist for this year’s LA Times Book Prize in poetry. Winners will be announced during the LA Times Festival of Books on April 19.
Intervals by Marianne Brooker (Fitzcarraldo Editions) is longlisted for the inaugural Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction. The shortlist will be announced on March 27, and the winners on June 13. Intervals will be published in the US in September.
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 Click here for more top titles publishing next Tuesday, Feb. 27.
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| | American Mother
by Colum McCann and Diane Foley
Etruscan Press • March 2024 • 9798985882452
★ “An indelible portrait of a mother’s courage. Award-winning novelist McCann and Foley, mother of murdered journalist James Wright Foley (1973-2014), offer a powerful recounting of the unspeakable tragedy and its aftermath. . . . A harrowing memoir of grief and love.” — Kirkus Reviews
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| | Death Styles
by Joyelle McSweeney
Nightboat Books • April 2024 • 9781643622309
★ “At once a lament for a lost infant child and an address to living daughters, the latest from McSweeney (Toxicon and Arachne) is a feat of endurance. . . . It’s a poignant and unforgettable portrait of grief.” — Publishers Weekly
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| | Wafers
by Seong-nan Ha, trans. Janet Hong
Open Letter • June 2024 • 9781948830980
★ “In Ha’s impressive and suspenseful collection, contemporary South Koreans contend with loss, the unreliability of memory, and the lingering effects of past traumas. . . . Always arresting, this collection is not to be missed.” — Publishers Weekly
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| | Trondheim
by Cormac James
Bellevue Literary Press • February 2024 • 9781954276239
“James’s new novel is a deep dive into a family navigating a crisis. It follows two mothers waiting in the I.C.U. to see if their son will wake up from a coma, and through that framework, explores their lives, their relationship, their beliefs and much more.” — New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)
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| | The Villain’s Dance
by Fiston Mwanza Mujila, trans. Roland Glasser
Deep Vellum Publishing • March 2024 • 9781646051274
“Mujila’s frenetic energy is captured in rapturous language by Roland Glasser, translating from the French. Recalling the gritty, exuberant novels of the South African Zakes Mda and the Congolese Alain Mabanckou, Mujila has brought to life a feverish tale of Africa’s underclass, whose demands—like the author’s—are hard to resist.” — New York Times Book Review
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| | The Singularity
by Balsam Karam, trans. Saskia Vogel
Feminist Press • January 2024 • 9781558611931
“Karam—who is of Kurdish ancestry and moved to Sweden as a young child—has an eye for poignant shifts in perspectives. . . . There is a haunting, hushed tone to the novel, neatly evoked by Saskia Vogel’s translation from the Swedish, that probes the disorienting effects of exile.” — New York Times Book Review
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“Nicholson’s writing career has been varied, admirable, and courageous. He stops to notice uncommercial and even bizarre subjects, shunning well-traveled roads. He goes where he likes. He gets out often. Nobody can imitate him.” — Los Angeles Review of Books
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| New Digital Review Copies
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Bad Foundations
by Brian Allen Carr
CLASH Books • January 2024 • 9781955904865
“Bad Foundations is the story of all the Midwestern boys who grew up being told, ‘get an education,’ and so they did, only to find out later that nobody really cares about a philosophy degree, or an English degree, or any other degree except the one to which someone is willing to get themselves dirty for a few bucks.” — Chris Lee, Boswell Book Company (Milwaukee, WI)
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Love Novel
by Ivana Sajko, trans. Mima Simic
Biblioasis • February 2024 • 9781771965989
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Numerous Consortium publishers are finalists for Small Press of the Year at the 2024 British Book Awards—congratulations to 3DTotal Publishing, Charco Press, Do Books, Gallic Books, Little Island Books, Saraband, and September Publishing.
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