Industry & Advocacy News
October 29, 2021
In this week’s issue: two literary horror writers discuss vampire novels in honor of Halloween; Farrar, Straus and Giroux names Mitzi Angel president; controversy erupts in France over the sale of a newly discovered manuscript by Louis-Ferdinand Céline; why U.S. readers can’t find copies of Nobel Prize for Literature-winner Abdulrazak Gurnah’s books; Powell’s Books turns 50; the Library of Congress produces a new video about copyrights; and more.
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Dracula Brought Vampires into the Limelight. Let’s Talk about the Best Literary Bloodsuckers Since.The Washington PostIn honor of Halloween, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Lavie Tidhar review the history of vampire novels and talk about those they liked the most, including those written by authors outside the U.S. or Great Britain.
Mitzi Angel Named President, Publisher at FSGPublishers Weekly“Mitzi Angel, currently senior v-p and publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, will succeed Jonathan Galassi as president of the imprint on January 1. Galassi will remain with the imprint as chairman and executive editor.”Newly Unearthed Work by a Revered and Reviled Novelist Causes a Stir in FranceThe New York Times“A legal battle is raging over manuscripts written by the antisemitic writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline that disappeared almost eight decades ago.”Powells Books Turns 50, but Future in FluxPublishers WeeklyPortland’s Powells Books, one of the largest and best-known independent bookstores in the country, is celebrating its 50th anniversary, but sales are at 69% of what they were before the pandemic started.
He Won the Nobel. Why are his Books so Hard to Find?The New York TimesSupply chain problems and former disinterest of American publishers in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s work explain why it is so difficult for U.S. readers to find copies of his novels—despite increased demand.
Poet Threa Almontaser Wins Inaugural Maya Angelou Book Award for The Wild Fox of YemenThe Washington Post Book ClubBorn in New York, Yemeni American poet Threa Almontaser won the first Maya Angelou Book Award. In acknowledging the $10,000 prize, she said, “I feel a responsibility toward the Yemeni community now more than ever to write, not just about our survival but our joys, too. . . . I’m influenced to write about both cultural differences and different cultures.” Next year’s award will go to a fiction writer.
Copyright: the Engine of Free ExpressionLibrary of CongressThis 26-minute video produced for the 2021 National Book Festival provides an introduction to copyright and how it protects and encourages creativity.
A Fragmentary, Lyric Essay about Fragmentary, Lyric EssaysLitHubPoet and essayist Julie Marie Wade waxes eloquently about defining lyric essays and the challenges of writing one successfully.
