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Awards & News

The Horror Writers Association announced the winners of 2022 Bram Stoker Awards, with The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias (Mulholland; LJ starred review), taking the top prize for Superior Achievement in a Novel. Locus has details. LJ has an interview with Iglesias.

Salman Rushdie is awarded prestigious German Peace Prize. USA Today reports. 

NYPL announces that Zain Khalid has won the Young Lions Fiction Award for Brother Alive (Grove; LJ starred review).

Edwidge Danticat wins the 2023 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story.

The Miles Franklin Literary Award 2023 shortlist is announced. Books+Publishing has the list.

Lucy Caldwell wins Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. The Bookseller reports. 

Robert Macfarlane wins the inaugural Weston International Award.

Angela O’Keeffe wins the 2023 University of Queensland Press Quentin Bryce Award. 

Lambda Literary has a list of its 35th Annual Awards winners.

Dianne Dugaw wins the 2023 Nicholas Schaffner Award for Music in Literature for her yet to be titled memoir, which will be published by Schaffner Press in 2024.

Locus has a report on the 2023 SFWA Nebula conference.

Harper Collins is among second-round bidders for Simon & Schuster. Publishers Lunch reports. 

Legendary editor Robert Gottlieb has died at the age of 92. NPR has more on his legacy.  

Mystery writer Carol Higgins Clark dies at 66. NYT has an obituary. 

“The comics industry mourns John Romita Sr.”; Gizmodo gathers tributes.

Poet Saskia Hamilton dies at 56. NYT has an obituary. 

Big Books of the Week

Zero Days by Ruth Ware (Gallery; LJ starred review), leads holds this week.

Other titles in demand include:

The Only One Left by Riley Sager (Dutton)

The Happiness Plan by Susan Mallery (Mira: Harlequin)

Remember Me by Mary Balogh (Berkley)

The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon (Knopf)

These books and others publishing the week of June 20, 2023 are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Five LibraryReads and four Indie Next picks publish this week:

Zero Days by Ruth Ware (Gallery; LJ starred review)

"Jack and her husband Gabe work in computer security. One night, Jack comes home to find Gabe murdered after a job. She's absolutely devastated and vows to find Gabe's killer. The police aren't much help, so she goes rogue, setting the police on a chase to find Jack as she investigates. The excitement builds and you won't be able to stop reading. With great characters and mounting tension, this is highly recommended."—Cari Dubiel, Twinsburg Public Library

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“Zero Days is an absolute nail biter. An innocent woman is accused of her husband’s murder and has no choice but to go on the run. It’s a new direction for Ruth Ware and it totally works. I was quite literally gripping the book the entire time.”—Samantha Ladwig, Imprint Bookstore, Port Townsend, WA

The Only One Left by Riley Sager (Dutton)

“Kit lost her job as a home health aid when a patient died under suspicious circumstances. She is given one last opportunity of employment: a job that requires her to care for Lenora Hope, longtime suspect in the murder of her whole family. This twisty Gothic mystery will leave savvy thriller readers and fans of Verity by Colleen Hoover gasping until the very last page.”—Jayme Oldham, Highland Park Public Library

The Brightest Star by Gail Tsukiyama (HarperVia)

“This moving historical novel spotlights Chinese-American icon Anna May Wong, a talented and ambitious actress caught in a film industry that denied her the roles she was born to play, even as she was expected to teach white actresses how to "act Chinese".—Kimberly McGee, Lake Travis Community Library

The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon (Knopf)

“The entire town feels sorry for Aidan Thomas when his wife dies. But the mysterious woman staying in the house Aidan shares with his teenage daughter has seen a very different side of him... and knows her every move has life-or- death stakes. A great pick for thriller fans looking for a page-turner with strong female protagonists.”—Mara Bandy Fass, Champaign Public Library

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“A woman has been held hostage in a shed for five years, and could be killed by her captor at any moment. Michallon’s outstanding debut will make you hold your breath as claustrophobia and unbearable tension set in.”—Melanie Fleishman, Center for Fiction Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY

Four additional Indie Next picks publish this week:

Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration by Alejandra Oliva (Astra House)

“Rivermouth is an emotional, informative exploration of the American immigrant and asylum systems. Alejandra Oliva brings such insight to the ‘immigration crisis’ while never losing the humanity of the people who get caught in it all.”—Christine Bollow, Loyalty Bookstores, Washington, DC

Mrs. S by K. Patrick (Europa)

“Mrs. S is a delicious little seduction: a story of obsession, desire, and displacement; a hazy seaside heat mirage; a funhouse mirror version of Bergman’s Persona and one of the most astute, beguiling books about want I’ve ever read.”—Camden Avery, The Booksmith, San Francisco, CA

Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird: Stories by Agustina Bazterrica, trans. by Sarah Moses (Scribner)

“This was such a gripping read — bizarre, fascinating, and terrifying all at once. I only put it down to grapple with what I was reading. I enjoyed this so much, and can’t wait to read more from Agustina Bazterrica.”—Daniel Jordan, Pearl’s Books, Fayetteville, AR

Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens (Dial; LJ starred review)

“Set in a late 1800s Dodge City, a young woman is caught up in other people’s expectations. Lucky Red is about carving your own way in a world that wants to keep you under its thumb. A thrilling western full of grit, passion, and whiskey!”—Jen Steele, Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, WI

In The Media

People’s book of the week is Lorrie Moore’s I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home (Knopf).  Also getting attention are The Spare Room by Andrea Bartz (Ballantine), and The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende, tr. by Francis Riddle (Ballantine; LJ starred review). A “New in Paperback” section highlights Big Girl by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan (Liveright), Nuclear Family by Joseph Han (Counterpoint), and Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley (MCD).

There is a feature on The Turtles musician Mark Volman and his new memoir, Happy Forever: My Musical Adventures With The Turtles, Frank Zappa, T. Rex, Flo & Eddie, And More (Jawbone). Plus, Linda Skeens, Blue Ribbon Kitchen Cookbook, shares a recipe. 

Reviews

NYT reviews The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon (Knopf): “The book poses the powerful question to its reader: What do we really know about the people around us, and how might we be dangerously wrong?”; The Translations of Seamus Heaney ed. by Marco Sonzogni (Farrar): “Among the most important things that we learn in Marco Sonzogni’s newly collected The Translations of Seamus Heaney — an immense and informative gathering of the late Nobel Prize winner’s translations — are the ways that Heaney, as translator, thought less of carrying over the so-called literal, and more of finding the pitch and resonance that help an audience receive a poem.”; Beyond the Shores: A History of African Americans Abroad by Tamara J. Walker (Crown): “vividly demonstrates that the search for home and a desire for freedom have shaped much of the African American experience in the United States — and the world — throughout the 20th century and into the present.”; Fat Time and Other Stories by Jeffery Renard Allen (Graywolf): “The collection also offers confidently eccentric takes on historical figures from the worlds of music and sports, not merely to humanize the people behind the iconic profiles — that’s too conventional a move for Allen — but instead to make them at once newly recognizable and newly strange.”; The Devil's Playground by Craig Russell (Doubleday): “Can a film be cursed? Or is it the system behind the film — Hollywood and all its many shades of corruption — that’s toxic? It’s a central question of Craig Russell’s excellent, engrossing historical horror novel, one that explores the symbiosis of power and evil in the Golden Age of Hollywood.”; Through the Groves: A Memoir by Anne Hull (Holt): “Hull was wholeheartedly liberated by doing this memoir. It could have been longer, and I would have kept reading.”; By All Means Available : Memoirs of a Life in Intelligence, Special Operations, and Strategy by Michael G. Vickers (Knopf): “An implicit question haunts this illuminating and richly detailed memoir by Michael G. Vickers, the senior intelligence official at the center of America’s long war for the greater Middle East.”; National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home by Anya von Bremzen (Penguin Pr.): “The result is a fast-paced, entertaining travelogue, peppered with compact history lessons that reveal the surprising ways dishes become iconic.”  NYT also has a joint review of three thrillers: Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum (Flatiron), Danielle Trussoni’s The Puzzle Master (Random), and Amy Suiter Clarke’s Lay Your Body Down (Morrow).

The Washington Post reviews How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told by Harrison Scott Key (Avid Reader Pr./S. & S.): “Key hopes you’ll walk away with another message, a trite but true one — that relationships are hard work, and that imagining your divorce is an important step in staying married. Also, maintaining a sense of humor.”; Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, America’s Black Wall Street by Victor Luckerson (Random): “Luckerson’s thoroughly researched and empathetically written account — anchored in the complex experiences of the Greenwood residents themselves — gives voice to a powerful, exquisitely multifaceted community that refuses to be silenced.”

NPR reviews Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge: Intimate Confessions from a Happy Marriage by Helen Ellis (Doubleday): “Hilarious, off-the-wall personal essays. Not just personal but, as her subtitle promises, at times intimate.” Also, NPR spotlights Caribbean literature and reviews the debut novel, The God of Good Looks by Breanne Mc Ivor (Morrow): “At the sweet spot between popular entertainment and literature, it's riveting and transportive — a summer read with bite.”

Briefly Noted

The July LibraryReads list is announced, featuring top pick, Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena (Pamela Dorman).

The Washington Post talks with Bao Ninh about his new story collection, Hanoi at Midnight trans. by Quan Manh Ha andCab Tran (Texas Tech Univ. Pr.). 

Poets&Writers has an interview with the new executive director of Hub City Writers Project, Meg Reid.

NYT has features on Lorrie Moore, Robert Plunket, and a wave of new novels redefining the western genre. 

Grady Hendrix and Riley Sager have a conversation about “horror, thrillers and craft” at CrimeReads. Plus, CrimeReads publishes essays by Alison Gaylin, Robert B. Parker’s Bad Influence (Putnam), and Gretchen Eberhart Cherington, The Butcher, the Embezzler and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry (She Writes Pr.).

Autostraddle has an essay about The Terrible We: Thinking with Trans Maladjustment by Cameron Awkward-Rich (Duke Univ.), a finalist for the 2023 Lambda Literary Awards.

Kirkus profiles Wesley G. Phelps, Before Lawrence v. Texas: The Making of a Queer Social Movement (Univ. of Texas).

Robert Rubin, The Yellow Pad: Making Better Decisions in an Uncertain World (Penguin Pr.), answers NYT’s “By the Book” questionnaire.

Amy Brady and Jeff Vandermeer discuss the history and future of ice, at LitHub. 

Tor.com shares an excerpt from The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei (Flatiron: Macmillan).

Entertainment Weekly talks with Melanie Hamrick about her new book, First Position (Berkley), and provides an excerpt. 

Gizmodo has “a Gleefully Gruesome First Peek at Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird,” ed. by Jonathan Maberry (1.: Blackstone).

Mike Pence will co-author a new book with his daughter, Fox News reports.

“Kerry Washington Celebrates Finishing Her New Memoir Thicker Than Water,” (Little, Brown Spark) to be published in September, People reports.

USA Today shares 5 books for the week. 

CrimeReads has 10 new books for the week. 

LitHub has 23 new books for the week. 

NYT selects “9 New Books We Recommend This Week” and six paperbacks to read this week. Plus, a list of “Newly Published Visual Books, from Asylum Seekers to Ruth E. Carter.”

USA Today offers a Juneteenth reading list.

Tor.com has a list of ”Five of the Greatest Turtles and Tortoises in Fantasy.”

CrimeReads lists “Latinx horror and crime fiction to check out in 2023.”

Parade lists all of Sarah J. Maas’s books in order.

Authors On Air

NPR’s Fresh Air talks with author Blair LM Kelley about the new book, Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class (Liveright). 

Journalist Laura Carney discusses her book, My Father's List: How Living My Dad's Dreams Set Me Free (Post Hill Pr.) with CBS Sunday Morning.

Director Mike Flanagan gives an update on The Dark Tower TV show, based on the novels by Stephen King; EW has the news. Deadline also covers the adaptation.

Sony Pictures Classics has released a trailer for Shortcomings, based on the 2007 graphic novel by Adrian Tomine, IndieWire reports.

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