Hot News This Week
September 10, 2026
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“The late painter, playwright, and professional wrestler polymath was the main character of Rachel Comey’s 25th anniversary show . . . Models toted Drexler’s books . . .” As reported in Vogue Runway and Harper’s Bazaar, Rosalyn Drexler is the inspiration for fashion designer Rachel Comey’s spring 2027 collection.
Drexler, a “Pop Art pioneer,” is also the subject of a major story in the September print issue of Vogue, in which Hagfish is highlighted for bringing her work back into the zeitgeist: “They published To Smithereens as their first title last spring, and this fall [on September 29] they’ll reissue Drexler’s 1974 madcap satire The Cosmopolitan Girl, about a woman in a relationship with her talking dog.”
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| October Indie Next Picks from Transit and Biblioasis
Rebecca Perry’s May We Feed the King (Transit Books), which is a “voyeuristic mirror to reflect modern themes of loneliness, surveillance, and being misunderstood, while reminding us that history is written by those who hold the pen,” according to Logan Walley of Recluse Books (Fort Worth, TX).
Melissa Harrison’s The Given World (Biblioasis), which Ian McCord of Rec Room Books (Athens, GA) calls a ”relaxing primer of the waxing storm before the waning calm that is humankind’s brief time on this planet.”
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| Most Anticipated Fall Books from the NYT, PW, and Lit Hub
Several titles from Consortium publishers are cropping up on big fall preview lists . . .
- Stitched by Eli McCann (Torrey House Press)
- Hold Still by Ben Ehrenreich (City Lights Publishers)
- The Returnus by Joaquín Camp, trans. Inese Silva (Berbay Publishing)
Saul Williams was recently interviewed by NPR Music about Songs My Mother Taught Me, music as a weapon against empire, and more.
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| Booklist’s Biography and Memoir Spotlight
Numerous titles from Consortium publishers were featured in the August issue of Booklist spotlighting biographies and memoirs.
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| | Botany of Madness
by Leon Engler, trans. Alexandra Roesch
New Vessel Press • November 2026 • 9781954404458
“A man sits in a hospital library and flips through the DSM. He is a playwright and a psychologist. . . . He sees his parents and grandparents in the patients who sit across from him—in the schizophrenia ward, the depression ward, the withdrawal ward—and he fears his own predisposition.”— Kyra Perlmutter, Politics and Prose Bookstore (Washington, DC)
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| | The Weather Shop
by Thomas Lee, trans. Deborah Smith
Do Re Mi Books • October 2026 • 9781917933087
“Whimsical, colorful and cozy! This book feels like imagination gone wild.” — Alexa Dewey, Sidetrack Bookshop (Royal Oak, MI)
“There is so much to notice on every charming page of The Weather Shop, a book about a kind mole shopkeeper and how his weather trinkets help the animals that come to visit! This book is bound to cheer up the heart of any reader like sunshine after a rain shower!” — Andrew King, Ridgecrest Books (Shoreline, WA)
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| | Lumina Station
by Malena Mörling
Alice James Books • November 2026 • 9781967149063
★ “Poet and translator Mörling’s long-awaited third collection (after 2006’s Astoria) further cements her place among the finest contemporary metaphysical poets.” — Library Journal
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★ “Paced to keep pages turning. Evocative watercolor and ink illustrations, alternately cozy and dramatic, contain much eye-catching detail.” — Horn Book Magazine
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★ “An enchanting story of creativity and play ideal for daydreamy children . . . reminiscent of Raymond Briggs’s classic The Snowman.” — Booklist
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| | Snowfall
by Sun-jung Park
Floris Books • September 2026 • 9781835750049
★ “Younger readers will be enchanted by the vibrant illustrations and huggable snowflakes, while older readers will doubtlessly return to this visual beauty on snowy evenings. Let it snow!” — Booklist
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★ “A spare, tender case for what words can’t hold; best shared one-on-one and a natural pairing with Peter H. Reynolds’s The Dot.” — School Library Journal
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★ “This translation of the stunning Whale Song takes readers on a deep dive into the enigmatic lives of humpback whales.” — School Library Journal
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★ “Spanish-language readers will relish the catty endeavors of three feline friends to ‘jump ship.’ Anticipate a purr-fect ending that will endear young children to the magic of storytelling in this entertaining must-read.” — School Library Journal
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★ “Houston’s prose is concise and vivid, and the animals she depicts, from her dying wolfhound, Henry, to a young Icelandic horse, Óski, jump from the page. It’s a loving testament to the way animals can shape a life.” — Publishers Weekly
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 Browse digital review copies on Covered, Ingram’s new digital discovery tool for booksellers, librarians, and publishing professionals.
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| FICTION
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, trans. Ros Schwartz (Transit Books)
ABA, SCIBA, PNBA, MPIBA, NAIBA, NEIBA, NCIBA, and Indie Press Top 40 (#3) Bestseller
Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman (Coffee House Press)
Indie Press Top 40 (#16) Bestseller
Stitched by Eli McCann (Torrey House Press)
Bookshop.org and Indie Press Top 40 (#32) Bestseller
We Were Forbidden by Jacqueline Harpman, trans. Ros Schwartz (Transit Books)
Indie Press Top 40 (#37) Bestseller
NONFICTION
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Three titles are longlisted for the American Literary Translators Association’s 2026 National Translation Awards: Ye Hui’s The Ruins, translated by Dong Li (Deep Vellum / Phoneme Media); Anna Gual’s Unnameable, translated by AKaiser (Zephyr Press); and Leif Høghaug’s The Calf, translated by David M. Smith (Deep Vellum / Fum d’Estampa).
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| Upcoming Romance Book Buzz
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“Terrifically funny, witty, acid-drenched writing. It’s like being privy to the wildest you-didn’t-hear-it-from-me gossip. If you’re looking for a book with real party vibes, this is it.” Author Kristen Arnett raved about Sloane Murphy’s Shut Up, I Love You, I’ll Call You Tomorrow: Stories (LittlePuss Press) in a recent interview with Publishers Lunch.
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“Where so many of her predecessors came alive only on the dance floor, Ojeda allows her subject matter to reverberate through the novel, inflecting every sentence with its shivery rhythms.” Mónica Ojeda’s Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun, translated by Sarah Booker (Coffee House Press), was reviewed in a New Yorker essay about books embracing the literary potential of underground electronic music.
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“You’re in for a ride.” Dua Lipa’s Service95 recommends reading What Am I, A Deer? by Polly Barton (Fitzcarraldo Editions) when you’re having an existential crisis.
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“Hacic-Vlahovic’s debut novel presents a Milan in which night is not a period of time circumscribed by the hands of a clock, but a way of living in the city.” Vogue featured Life of the Party by Tea Hacic-Vlahovic (CLASH Books) in a roundup of revelatory books about Milan.
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