Hot News This Week
February 5, 2026
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| Literary Hub is running a great series of “Letters from Minnesota,” with writers sharing their experiences, as both witness and warning, of American authoritarianism. Browse the dispatches here from our friends in the Minnesota literary community, including several pieces by Consortium publishers’ authors:
- “If They Take Me and Leave the Children”: Kao Kalia Yang, author of The Latehomecomer (Coffee House Press), on preparing for the worst in the face of ICE’s occupation
- “There’s Some Good in This World”: Bao Phi, author of Thousand Star Hotel (Coffee House Press), on finding solidarity on Eat Street
- “This Occupation Is Strange But Familiar”: Chaun Webster, author of Wail Song (Black Ocean), on ICE in Minneapolis and the limits of language
- “Finding Reverence in the Face of Brutality”: Ed Bok Lee, author of Mitochondrial Night (Coffee House Press), on the courage of Alex Pretti and his fellow Minnesotans
- “Details from an Occupation”: Angela Pelster, author of Limber (Sarabande Books), on the things you start to notice during a crisis
- “This Is Actually What’s Great About America”: David Mura, author of Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire (Coffee House Press), on the power of solidarity and diversity in the Twin Cities
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| ALA Picks for Queer Graphic Novels
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| | Of Beasts
by M. Jane Worma
CLASH Books • February 2026 • 9781960988867
“Knock, knock, it’s your religious trauma! Here to reckon with heavenly truths and divine plans, Of Beasts follows the love affair between Jude and Dante, and the cataclysm it promises.” — Rachel Ekstrom, Changing Hands Bookstore (Tempe, AZ)
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“A chilling feminist collection of short stories touching on body horror, magical realism, and gender based violence. Silverman’s stories will burrow deep under your skin and haunt your very soul.” — Emme Kerrigan, The Doylestown and Lahaska Bookshops (PA)
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“This is a fantastic collection of both widely known and little known shapeshifting fairy tales, edited and annotated with care. Jennifer Pullen’s voice comes through as both informative and witty, which makes for an immensely enjoyable reading experience.” — Vaughn Lachenauer, Main Point Books (Wayne, PA)
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“These stories are populated by artificial bodies, digitized souls, oh-so-many doll parts, and the most literary Choose Your Own Adventure story you’ll ever have the pleasure of reading. This wonderful debut collection goes straight to my playlist entitled New Golden Age of Short Weird Fiction. All women, all bangers.” — Tony Peltier, Flyleaf Books (Chapel Hill, NC)
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| | Tarantula
by Eduardo Halfon, trans. Daniel Hahn
Bellevue Literary Press • May 2026 • 9781954276567
★ “In the role of detective, Halfon attempts to understand why his summer camp morphed into a concentration camp, complete with string quartet. He also probes the integral role that Judaism and his Guatemalan roots play in his writing.” — Library Journal
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★ “A must-read for those interested in contemporary Indigenous life in the north or just good storytelling, this linked short story collection is unusual and engrossing. Johnston’s literary stories shine for their accessibility, wonderfully drawn family relationships, and evocative settings; the presence of the mystical adds an extra frisson.” — Library Journal
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★ “Carlos Castaneda was a fraud and a cult leader, but also a powerful writer who tilled psychologically fertile material, according to this entrancing biography. . . . Castaneda appears as captivating as Don Juan himself—a principal architect, for all his chicanery, of modern pop spirituality. This enthralls.” — Publishers Weekly
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★ “Captivating. . . . Ntumy populates her saga with an expansive cast while giving inner life to all her characters, servants and guards included. Her deep, thoughtful worldbuilding is especially impressive. Readers will enjoy getting lost within this vibrant world and eagerly await the next volume.” — Publishers Weekly
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I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, trans. Ros Schwartz (Transit Books)
Indie Press Top 40 (Fic, #2), ABA, MPIBA, PNBA, MIBA, SCIBA, NCIBA, and NEIBA Bestseller
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| | New Digital Review Copies
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“The book banning that is happening is making me even more motivated to make sure those stories are being told and people’s voices are being heard.” Publishers Weekly interviewed Street Noise’s Liz Frances about five years of dissident publishing.
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“This novel, the first of the undersung writer’s books to appear in English, opens in 1946, just as winter is descending on Milan.” Fausta Cialente’s A Very Cold Winter, translated by Julia Nelsen (Transit Books), was written up in the New Yorker this week.
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“Are you a fan of romantasy? Do you like it when things get weird? Well, buckle in, cuties.” Them featured Violet Allen’s Plastic, Prism, Void: Part One (LittlePuss Press) as one of the top ten most anticipated LGBTQ+ books for 2026.
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Anna Badkhen, former war correspondent and author of To See Beyond (Bellevue Literary Press), was interviewed by Publishers Weekly about stepping away from journalism and writing towards wonder.
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