Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—publishing reports, literary dispatches, academic announcements, and more—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today’s stories.
The Center for Fiction has announced the shortlist for its 2019 First Novel Prize [2]. The list features debuts from seven writers: Chia-Chia Lin, Julia Phillips, Pitchaya Sudbanthad, Ocean Vuong, Joe Wilkins, Lauren Wilkinson, and De’Shawn Charles Winslow. The finalists will read from their novels at a celebration on December 9, and the $10,000 annual prize will be awarded at the Center’s annual benefit the following evening.
The film studio A24 has unveiled limited edition books [3] to accompany three of its most popular films: Ex Machina, The Witch, and Moonlight. The Moonlight book will include a foreword by Frank Ocean and an essay by Hilton Als, and The Witch book will include short fiction by Carmen Maria Machado. (Verge)
More changes are coming to the New York Times Book Review bestseller lists [4]. Lists for mass market paperbacks and graphic books will return this October, after being axed in 2017. The section will also add lists for middle grade and young adult paperback. (Publishers Weekly)
In a profile at the Atlantic, Sarah M. Broom, author of The Yellow House [5], discusses why it was impossible to separate the story of her family from the story of New Orleans and America.
At the Guardian, Max Porter recommends Denise Riley’s Time Lived, Without Its Flow. “I was looking for a literary account of bereavement [6] that did more than recreate or reshuffle existing…ways of writing about grief.”
Publishers Weekly checked in with indie booksellers and publishers [7] after the Brooklyn Book Festival, which took place this past Sunday. By all accounts, the festival was a huge success.
In the latest installment of the Guardian’s Books That Made Me [8] series, Caroline Criado Perez, author of Invisible Women, shares the book she gives as a gift, the book she couldn’t finish, and more.
Author and translator Alberto Manguel shares brief notes and illustrations of iconic literary characters [9] in the New York Times Book Review.