Breaking news on authors, publishers, and book-related topics

How women invented book clubs, revolutionizing reading and their own lives

Mar 27 2021: The women met wherever they could get their hands on a few books and some quiet: in empty classrooms, backrooms of bookstores, at friend’s homes, even while working in mills.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the first American reading circles — a precursor ...

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Beverly Cleary, beloved children’s book author, dies at 104

Mar 26 2021: Children's author Beverly Cleary died Thursday in Carmel, Calif. She was 104 years old. Cleary was the creator of some of the most authentic characters in children's literature — Henry Huggins, Ralph S. Mouse and the irascible Ramona Quimby.

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Larry McMurtry, novelist of the American West, dies at 84

Mar 26 2021: Larry McMurtry, a prolific novelist and screenwriter who demythologized the American West with his unromantic depictions of life on the 19th-century frontier and in contemporary small-town Texas, died on Thursday. He was 84.

Over more than five decades, Mr. McMurtry ...

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National Book Critics Circle awards announced

Mar 26 2021: The winners of the National Book Critics Circle awards have been announced:

• Fiction: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. 
• Nonfiction: Island on Fire: The Revolt That Ended Slavery in the British Empire by Tom Zoellner
• Biography: Stranger...

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JRR Tolkien's own illustrations appear in Lord of the Rings for the first time

Mar 25 2021: A series of 30 illustrations, maps and sketches created by JRR Tolkien while he was writing The Lord of the Ring are to be included in the epic fantasy novel for the first time since its publication in 1954.

Tolkien was always modest about his abilities as an artist:...

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Book workers call for day of solidarity with Amazon workers

Mar 25 2021: Publishing professionals, independent booksellers, literary publicists and others throughout the book business have pledged to join a day of solidarity on March 26 in support of Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Ala., who are voting in a union election this month.

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Eight writers awarded $165,000 Windham-Campbell Prizes

Mar 23 2021: The winners of the 2021 Windham-Campbell Prizes have been announced. Eight writers, who are being honored for their literary achievement or promise, will receive $165,000 each to support their work.

The prize is administered by Yale University. Two awards are given ...

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Piranesi narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor wins Audiobook of the Year award

Mar 23 2021: The Audio Publishers Association hosted the 26th annual Audie Awards virtually last night, making them open to the public for the first time.

The award for Audiobook of the Year was given to Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor (Bloomsbury).

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