Hot News This Week May 8, 2025
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| The 2025 Pulitzer Prizes were announced on Monday, and we’re thrilled to celebrate two Consortium titles among the honorees:
Two authors recognized by the Pulitzers also have backlist titles with Consortium publishers:
Major congrats to all!
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| Publishers Face NEA Grant Terminations
“In emails sent to affected organizations, the NEA said that it was ‘terminating awards’ that fell outside of the priorities set by the president, and that ‘funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the Administration’s agenda.’”
In a piece about cuts to National Endowment for the Arts funding, the Washington Post spoke with staff from Deep Vellum, Open Letter, and Transit about having their NEA grants for 2025 terminated. Publishers Weekly directs to a crowdsourced list of organizations affected, including Consortium publishers Alice James Books, Aunt Lute Books, BOA Editions, Nightboat Books, and Sarabande Books, among many other small presses and cultural institutions.
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| Consortium’s Fall Catalogs Are Here
Consortium’s FW25 season covers titles publishing September 2025 – March 2026 and includes 5 new publishers: Creature Publishing, Pow Pow Press, the National Science Teaching Association, Studio 96 Publishing, and the American Counseling Association.
Look for special editions of beloved books by Jacqueline Harpman and André Alexis, plus exciting titles from Brian Jones, Andrew Krivak, Helen DeWitt, Michelle Tea, Rebecca Solnit, Park Seolyeon, Aracelis Girmay, Maika Harper, Patricia Forde, Jack White, and many more.
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Transit Books; Haymarket Books; Coach House Books; Bellevue Literary Press
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“A psychologically astute and accomplished novel. The Remembered Solider is a studied exploration of a marriage and wartime horror. The prose is nothing short of Jamesian in its nuanced depiction of the phases of Amand’s and Julienne’s intimacy, and David McKay’s translation of Daanje’s writing with all of its subtleties, is truly remarkable.” — Lori Feathers, Interabang Books (Dallas, TX)
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| | Crocosmia by Miranda Mellis Nightboat Books • August 2025 • 9781643622750
“If the choice facing us in the 21st century is between utopia and oblivion, we could do worse than turn for inspiration to radical speculative texts like Miranda Mellis’s world-altering Crocosmia. A novel that dares to imagine a future enlivened and entangled with art, reparation, and the vibrant presence of the more-than-human, Crocosmia is a ray of light pouring through a crack in our shattered world.” — Stephen Sparks, Point Reyes Books (Point Reyes Station, CA)
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★ “Mushtaq makes her English-language debut with this virtuosic collection. . . . It’s an excellent introduction to an author of rare talent.” — Publishers Weekly
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★ “[A] deeply moving and visually innovative debut. . . . This vulnerable graphic memoir cuts deep.” — Publishers Weekly
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★ “Readers seeking a shame-free approach to the subject will find solidarity in no short supply. Loud and proud, this hits all the marks.” — Publishers Weekly
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“Vivian Blaxell’s sharp and amusingly tart new collection Worthy of the Event . . . seems to contain a whole library of experience.” — Torrey Peters, via The Guardian
“A moving and brilliant exploration of trans life since the ’60s . . . Worthy of the Event reads like a conversation with one of your smartest, most self-aware friends.” — Isle McElroy, via Vulture, “The Best Books of 2025 (So Far)”
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| | dd’s Umbrella by Jungeun Hwang, trans. e.yaewon Tilted Axis Press • April 2025 • 9781911284949
“Two novellas—linked loosely by their respective characters’ queer identities and affection for an old-fashioned, near-empty electronics market in Seoul—unfold in the aftermath of a deadly ferry disaster and a movement to oust a corrupt President. Like Hwang’s previous novels, this book is a tender, spooky portrait of outcast friends and lovers.” — New Yorker
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| | New Digital Review Copies
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Jewelle Gomez’s The Gilda Stories (City Lights Publishers) was featured in a recent Elle piece about the film Sinners and a rich tradition of Black vampire stories.
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Journalist Max Read recommended Jackie Ess’s Darryl (CLASH Books) in his Substack newsletter last week, calling it a “kooky, funny, short novel about sex, politics, gender, self-realization and the practice/lifestyle of cuckoldry.”
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ABA, MPIBA, NEIBA, NAIBA, and PNBA Bestseller I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, trans. Ros Schwartz Transit Books • May 2022 • 9781945492600
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