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Awards & News

Category winners for the Nero Book Awards are announced, including Wild Houses by Colin Barrett (Grove) and Lost in the Garden by Adam S. Leslie (Dead Ink). The Guardian has coverage. 

Peter Gizzi wins the T.S. Eliot Prize for his poetry collection Fierce Elegy (Wesleyan Univ.).

Kaya Press receives the Constellation Award.

ALA released a statement on support for libraries affected by Los Angeles wildfires.

Earlyword’s January GalleyChat spreadsheet is out now. GalleyChat has moved over to the Bluesky platform. 

Giller Prize will feature writers longlisted for the 2024 award in a new online book club, CBC reports. 

Multiple women accuse author Neil Gaiman of sexual abuse in a new Vulture article. People, Variety, and Hollywood Reporter have coverage. 

Customer records were reportedly breached in Scholastic data hack. Publishers Lunch has details. 

Reviews

NYT reviews What Happened to the McCrays? by Tracey Lange (Celadon): “Fans of the homecoming plot—The Half Moon, Marrying the Ketchups, The Blue Sisters, to name a few newish ones—will enjoy The McCrays, with good reason”; A Calamity of Noble Houses by Amira Ghenim, tr. by Miled Faiza & Karen McNeil (Europa): “But the oppressions of patriarchy are not confined to one nation or time period, and Ghenim convincingly portrays its harms to all members of society, across generation, social status and even gender”; Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix (Berkley; LJ starred review): “At turns frightening, anxiety-producing, infuriating, beautiful and sad, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is a perfect horror for our imperfect age”; and The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story by Pagan Kennedy (Vintage): “Too many readers will recognize that doubt, and Kennedy’s love for her subject reverberates throughout the book. Kennedy’s own mother hadn’t understood what happened to her, but Goddard, she writes, ‘was the woman who had believed little girls.’” Plus, there are short reviews of four crime and mystery novels: Grave Danger by James Grippando (Harper), Mask of the Deer Woman by Laurie L. Dove (Berkley), The Dark Hours by Amy Jordan (Mira), and Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right by Walter Mosley (Mulholland; LJ starred review).

Washington Post reviews Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything (Essays on the Future That Never Was) by Colette Shade (Dey Street): “Shade is a deft and dexterous writer, emotionally intelligent and authoritative. Y2K is her first book, but I hope, for literature’s future at least, that it won’t be her last.”

Slate reviews Presumed Guilty by Scott Turow (Grand Central): “For all the reliable pleasures of Turow’s courtroom drama, his hero has shed the complications that once led him to the dock and, with them, everything that made him interesting.”

Briefly Noted

LitHub highlights 27 new books for the week. 

Librarian Misha Stone from Seattle Public Library suggests “how to read more in 2025” at Seattle Times. 

BookRiot examines “BookLooks, RatedBooks, and Other Unprofessional Book ‘Review’ Sites to Know.“

Reactor previews new fantasy books publishing this month. 

Michael Cannell discusses his new book, Blood and the Badge: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops, and a Scandal That Shocked the Nation (Minotaur), with USA Today. 

People has an interview with Jennifer Moorman about her pivot from singer to author and her latest novel, The Vanishing of Josephine Reynolds (Harper Muse).

CrimeReads shares an excerpt from Ruth Ware’s forthcoming novel, The Woman in Suite 11 (Gallery: Scout), due out July 8.

A new £2 coin in Britain will feature George Orwell to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the author’s death, BBC reports. 

Authors on Air

Nnedi Okorafor discusses her new book, Death of the Author (Morrow; LJ starred review), on B&N’s Poured Over podcast.

LitHub shares a 2025 literary film and TV preview.

Anne Marie Anderson, Cultivating Audacity: Dismantle Doubt and Let Yourself Win (Ideapress), visits GMA today.

Josh Gad, In Gad We Trust: A Tell-Some (Gallery), will appear on Today, The View, and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Jamie Oliver, Simply Jamie: Fast & Simple Food (Flatiron), will visit with Drew Barrymore.

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