Hot News This Week
September 25, 2025
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The piece is about Siddiqui’s Paris bar with the same name, the Dissident Club, which he founded “as a hub for fellow journalists, activists, and others who have fled danger in their home countries for refuge in Paris.” Read more about the community he’s building among fellow exiles.
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| A Timely Picture Book with 3 Starred Reviews
Publishing early next month by Floris Books, My Home Is in My Backpack by Eugenia Perrella, illustrated by Angela Salerno, has earned three starred trade reviews:
★ “A superb book that evokes empathy for families facing forced migration, examining the topic in an accessible, age-appropriate way for children.” — BookPage
★ “A child’s understanding of home evolves during a Latine migrant family’s journey to safety. . . . [This] is an age-appropriate introduction to complex, traumatic events.” — Kirkus Reviews
★ “A family’s forced migration prompts a new way of seeing home in this sensitively rendered tale of change from Perrella and Salerno.” — Publishers Weekly
Words Without Borders also featured My Home Is in My Backpack in a roundup for World Kid Lit Month, noting the book is “inspired by real-life refugee stories from Venezuela” and “Perrella’s text and Salerno’s illustrations capture the invisible: the things we carry within us.”
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| Most-Staged Theater Productions for the 2025-26 Season
American Theatre has released their list of top ten most-produced plays for the 2025-26 season, and four of the titles are publications from Consortium publishers:
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| Consortium Corner with Jayashree Anderson
In the latest Consortium Corner, we’re CC’ing Jayashree “Jaya” Anderson, a former bookseller of nearly two decades and Consortium’s sales and support rep. Read the full interview here, which features:
- Jaya’s enthusiastic picture book recs
- The romance novels she’s reading
- The fantasy epics she’s writing
Consortium Corner is a Q&A series with staff and reps to celebrate Consortium’s 40 years of independent book distribution.
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| | Bennett’s Roof
by Anuska Allepuz
NubeOcho • September 2025 • 9788410406353
“The story carries such a heartfelt message. I really loved how everyone came together in the end, setting aside their differences to support someone in need. It was a beautiful reminder of the power of community and kindness. Bennett is absolutely the sweetest!” — Kassandra McKenna, Watermark Books & Cafe (Wichita, KS)
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| | On Submission
by Michael J. Seidlinger
CLASH Books • October 2025 • 9781960988812
“Part paranoid psychological horror, part condemnation of the publishing industry, Michael J. Sedlinger’s newest book is a brutal, innovative slasher. . . . With wit, terror, and some truly shocking violence, Seidlinger peels the skin off of publishing, holds up the gooey, messy insides, and asks: is this worth it?” — Charlie Marks, Fountain Bookstore (Richmond, VA)
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“Having lost his memory and sense of self, Siken uses the poem to recreate an identity through storytelling that spans his early years, later familial interactions, and the traumatic experience of surviving a major stroke.” — Los Angeles Review of Books
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“A child needn’t know a thing about Scandinavia to appreciate the charm of this classic story, ornamented by delicate and expressive watercolor paintings by Lars Klinting.” — Wall Street Journal
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| | Onement Won
by Prageeta Sharma
Wave Books • September 2025 • 9798891060357
“Sharma’s achievement in Onement Won lies in inviting all of life’s complication to enter—unity and disunity, that which is deeply quenching and that which starves—without retreat.” — Los Angeles Review of Books
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| | New Digital Review Copies
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“Doorstoppers are back.” Michael Lentz’s Schattenfroh (Deep Vellum Publishing), translated by Max Lawton, is included in a fall trend piece in the September 8 issue of New York Magazine.
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ABA, MPIBA, PNBA, SIBA, MIBA, GLIBA, NAIBA, NEIBA, and USA Today Bestseller
I Who Have Never Known Men
by Jacqueline Harpman, trans. Ros Schwartz
Transit Books • May 2022 • 9781945492600
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