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Awards & News

The Pulitzer Prizes are announced. James by Percival Everett (Doubleday; LJ starred review) wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War by Edda L. Fields-Black (Oxford Univ.; LJ starred review) and Native Nations: A Millennium in North America by Kathleen DuVal (Random) share the Pulitzer Prize in history.

Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race To Know All Life by Jason Roberts (Random) wins the Pulitzer for biography, while Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls (MCD) wins for best memoir.

New and Selected Poems by Marie Howe (Norton) wins the Pulitzer for poetry, and To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement by Benjamin Nathans (Princeton Univ.) wins in the general nonfiction category.

NYT has a guide to the Pulitzer winners. Washington Post, PBS Canvas, NPR’s All Things Considered, and Publishers Weekly also have coverage.

The Aurealis Award winners are announced.

Krushna Dande wins the A.C. Bose Grant, Locus reports.

The shortlist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature is announced, Kirkus reports.

The finalists for the Doug Wright Awards are announced. CBC has coverage.

Lambda Literary releases a statement on book bans.

Publishers Weekly reports on the proposed elimination of the NEA.

The Crimson reports on shrinking output and low morale at Harvard University Press.

Reviews

NYT reviews The Manor of Dreams by Christina Li (Avid Reader/S. & S.): “Ultimately, reading the novel feels like walking through the ruined garden behind Yin Manor: If you don’t cut the stems all the way back, the flowers won’t have the opportunity to bloom”; The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, tr. by Ross Benjamin (S. & S.: Summit): “Movie stars and Nazis are irresistible ingredients in any book. The Director, Daniel Kehlmann’s smartly entertaining new novel about the great Austrian filmmaker G.W. Pabst, offers both, detailing their once intimate, often symbiotic ties”; The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei (Doubleday): “Wei writes with a maturity that belies this novel’s status as a debut. Precise, layered and moving, The Original Daughter is a book not to miss”; and Eternal Summer by Franziska Gansler, tr. by Imogen Taylor (Other Pr.): “The slim, stunning first novel by the German author Franziska Gänsler is set in an unspecified year when climate collapse has left this formerly lush, healing region so ravaged by wildfires it is virtually uninhabitable.”

Washington Post reviews The Names by Florence Knapp (Pamela Dorman: Viking): “Despite its bleak setup, The Names is startlingly joyful and paced like a thriller”; and My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende, tr. by Frances Riddle (Ballantine): “Allende offers readers a deeply researched historical adventure, excavating both romantic and journalistic exploits with verve and passion.”

The Guardian reviews Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (Penguin Pr.): “Chernow makes out of all this an admirably animated, readable account of one of the modern world’s first celebrities. Somewhere deep inside it, almost hidden, glows the energy and humour of Twain’s very American prose.”

Vulture reviews The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Pr.): “Vuong’s new book, The Emperor of Gladness, is a welcome surprise. It is a sweet, charming, conventional novel whose ambition does not outstrip its ability.”

Briefly Noted

The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei (Doubleday) is the May GMA book club pick; People has an exclusive.

LitHub highlights 27 new books for the week.

Earlyword’s May GalleyChat spreadsheet is out now.

BookRiot shares 12 book club picks for May 2025.

People highlights new food romances.

Reactor has “Five Stories About Saying to Hell with Rules and Regulations.”

Autostraddle highlights “Our Most Anticipated Queer Books for May 2025.”

NYT explores MrBeast’s novel collaboration with James Patterson.

USA Today has an interview with Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle about their new book, We Can Do Hard Things: Answers to Life’s 20 Questions (Dial).

Time talks with Keith McNally about this new memoir, I Regret Almost Everything (Gallery).

Esquire has an interview with former Nickelodeon star Avan Jogia about his new poetry collection, Autopsy (of an Ex-Teen Heartthrob): (poems of rage, love, sex, and sadness) (Gallery).

Diana Gabaldon announces that the 10th Outlander book (release date TBD) will be titled A Blessing for a Warrior Going Out and confirms it will be the final book in the series, Parade reports.

Authors on Air

Meredith Hayden, The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook: Seasonal Recipes for Everyday Luxury and Elevated Entertaining (Ten Speed), will be on Today.

Tinx, Hotter in the Hamptons: A Novel (Bloom), visits CBS Mornings.

Kelsey Grammer, Karen: A Brother Remembers (Harper Select), will appear on Tamron Hall.

Actress Sarah Snook talks with NPR’s Fresh Air about playing all 26 roles in the Broadway play The Picture of Dorian Gray, adapted from Oscar Wilde’s 1890 novel.

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