Hot News This Week
May 26, 2026
| |
| Three titles from Consortium publishers are finalists for the 2026 Locus Awards, which recognize excellence in science fiction and fantasy literature.
| |
| Tonys, Eisners, and More Awards News
In addition to the Locus finalists, we’re thrilled to highlight a spate of good award tidings for Consortium publishers . . .
In the End We All Die by Tobias Aeschbacher, translated by Andrew Shields (Helvetiq), is nominated for the 2026 Eisner Awards, which highlight the best publications and creators in comics and graphic novels.
| |
| Nine titles from Consortium publishers are nominated for 2026 Tony Awards, which celebrate excellence in Broadway theatre.
In other drama news, Ava Pickett was profiled in the New York Times around the West End premiere of her play, 1536 (Theatre Communications Group / Nick Hern), in a piece that dubs her “the Charli XCX of young playwrights.”
| |
| Read This Next: Emily LaBarge’s “Stunning” Dog Days
“[Dog Days] begins with the lonely violence of waiting to die with a crocheted blanket over her head and ends with a commitment to engage with the world.”
Dog Days by Emily LaBarge (Transit Books), a “stunning” memoir out this week, received a glowing review in the New York Times Book Review by NYT nonfiction critic Jennifer Szalai. “It’s a testament to LaBarge’s gifts as a writer that she can make even the most complex and cerebral ideas feel urgent and alive,” says Szalai. “She writes with attentiveness, curiosity and rigor.” The Book Review previously highlighted Dog Days as a most-anticipated pick for spring, with editor Joumana Khatib calling it “a book that really should not be skipped.”
| |
| Joy Williams Reviews a “Perfect Little Novel”
“Heaven and Hell embraces and defies the categories of story—adventure, historical, romance, ghost, metaphysical.”
In Book Post, Joy Williams reviewed Heaven and Hell by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton (Biblioasis), calling it “a perfect little novel” that is “two hundred and eleven pages crowded to overflowing with words, but their passage is light, enthralling, seductive.”
Heaven and Hell is the first book in Stefánsson’s Trilogy About the Boy, an Icelandic saga set in a 19th-century fishing village at the edge of the world. The third novel, The Heart of Man, will be out in June, and it just received a starred review in Kirkus Reviews.
| |
| Publisher Profiles: LittlePuss and Hagfish
“LittlePuss Press Celebrates Trans Community, Indie Publishing Ethos”: LittlePuss Press co-publishers Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett were profiled by The Indypendent for publishing books like Violet Allen’s Plastic, Prism, Void: Part One that are “surprising, exhilarating and anything but conventional.”
Hagfish co-publishers Naomi Huffman and Julia Ringo were recently interviewed by the Creative Independent about keeping their list small, the freedoms of independent publishing, their spreadsheet of under-published women, and more. Their latest book is a reissue Joan Silber’s second novel, In the City, a story of self-invention in 1920s New York.
| |
| |
“A great read for Ferris Bueller fans, or of moviemaking in general.” — Jennifer S., Fauquier County Public Library
| | |
| | The Heart of Man
by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, trans. Philip Roughton
Biblioasis • June 2026 • 9781771967143
★ “Moody, lyrical, deeply life-affirming . . . an engrossing tale as brooding, unpredictable, and invigorating as the sea and storms affecting the characters’ lives.” — Kirkus Reviews
| | |
| | Ada
by Mark Haber
Coffee House Press • July 2026 • 9781566897594
★ “Haber specializes in wry, taut, intellectual historical fiction. . . . Though the setting is the 18th century, on the last legs of the Holy Roman Empire, Gerard’s character is amusingly, thoroughly applicable to any era—he is the quintessential failson.” — Kirkus Reviews
| | |
| | Melancholy I & II
by Jon Fosse, trans. Damion Searls and Grethe Kvernes
Deep Vellum / Dalkey Archive Press • July 2026 • 9781628976571
★ “Fans of Fosse will detect the emergence of his signature style here—recursive, musical, stream-of-consciousness prose that circles hawklike over themes of art, faith, and death.” — Kirkus Reviews
| | |
| | The Blanket
by Marie Dorleans, trans. Katy Lockwood-Holmes
Floris Books • September 2026 • 9781782509790
★ “This must-buy story has timeless illustrations and a sensitive plot. . . . This book from the creator of The Night Walk is an uplifting tale about overcoming fears and embracing adventure.” — School Library Journal
| | |
| |
★ “Distinct, memorable, and deliciously ghoulish. A striking story that steals the spotlight. . . . A boy ignores warnings not to play near the beach in this bilingual story that draws upon Inuit lore.” — Kirkus Reviews
| | |
|
FICTION
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, trans. Ros Schwartz (Transit Books)
ABA, MPIBA, PNBA, SIBA, GLIBA, MIBA, NAIBA, NEIBA, and Indie Press Top 40 (#4) Bestseller
NONFICTION
| |
|
The first book in a middle-grade comics trilogy, this fantastical, dessert-themed story finds a girl balancing friendships, school drama, and a series of magical mishaps.
| |
One Person
by Wee Hae-June, illus. Yael Frankel
Blue Dot Kids Press • August 2026 • 9781736226421
Exploring the transformative power of kindness, this beautifully illustrated picture book shows how a single act can make someone feel seen, valued, and hopeful.
| |
A little bear inhabits a world where words are not always enough in this striking black-and-white picture book about our inner worlds and the power of the unsaid.
| |
A Party for Mousse
by Claire Lebourg, trans. Sophie Lewis
Transit Children’s Editions • August 2026 • 9798893380507
In this fourth and festive volume in the critically acclaimed early reader series, Mousse learns that it doesn’t matter where you spend the holidays, it’s who you spend them with that counts.
| |
|
