This Month in Book News (December 2022 + past posts from previous three months)

/
This Month in Book News (December 2022 + past posts from previous three months)

This is a continuation of my series “This Month in Book News,” a new iteration of the “This Week in Book News” segment I previously wrote for my Facebook business page. Post-publication, I combined previous posts into this one and retitled this page.

My December round-up of book news includes:

*Book publishing’s “best friend” and “starriest powerbroker”

*Why Penguin Random House is back in the news

*The latest on the “most fiendishly difficult literary puzzle ever written”

*Why this has been a stellar year for South Asian writers

*The books, authors, words & more of the year

Happy New Year!

[Featured image created from various images, clockwise from left: Sri Lanka’s Shehan Karunatilaka (taken from The Guardian); the cover image of Hernan Diaz’s TRUST; Reese Witherspoon (taken from The Guardian); the poster for “Catherine Called Birdie” (taken from IMDB), the Penguin Random House logo; the TikTok logo; Colleen Hoover (taken from the author’s website)]

—

My November round-up of book news includes:

*The demise of the PRH-S&S merger and the latest on the HarperCollins Union strike

*The winners of this year’s National Book Awards

*The best books of the year according to the New York Times, Barnes & Noble, and me

*The significance of “gaslighting,” “permacrisis”—and ”goblin mode”?

*Why Joan Didion, Virginia Woolf, and Bob Dylan are back in the news

Featured photo taken from BBC news

—

My October round-up of book news covers:

*The winners of the Nobel and Booker Prizes and National Book Award finalists

*The 100th anniversary of “the most important poem of the twentieth century”

*Literary legends who are soon to be immortalized on postage stamps

*The latest on Prince Harry’s memoir, SPARE

*The children’s classic that has been adapted into a feature film, an opera—and now a musical

Featured photo taken from PTC News

—

In my September round-up of book news, I cover:

*How profits are up in the publishing industry, but it might be “broken”

*Banned Books Week, and the city that’s become a “book sanctuary city”

*The famous (and infamous) people who are writing novels

*Literary losses, including Booker Prize winning author Dame Hilary Mantel

*And the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, who was “a true bibliophile”

Featured photo taken from the Penguin UK website

Read More

That Thing About Author & Illustrator Supriya Kelkar: Persistence!

/
That Thing About Author & Illustrator Supriya Kelkar: Persistence!

For my latest author Q&A, I interviewed Supriya Kelkar. I worked with Supriya on her middle grade novel AHIMSA back in 2015, when she had yet to land an agent or publish, but Supriya is now the author of nine children's books, with three more forthcoming! Learn about her inspiring road to publication here.

Read More

This Month in Book News (August 2022 + past posts from previous three months)

/
This Month in Book News (August 2022 + past posts from previous three months)

 This is a continuation of my series “This Month in Book News,” a new iteration of the “This Week in Book News” segment I previously wrote for my Facebook business page. Post-publication, I combined previous posts into this one and retitled this page.

—

Highlights from my August book news round-up include:

*Publishing’s “trial of the century” *Why, as the New Yorker says, it’s time for Rushdie to receive the Nobel Prize *The new novel by Abdulrazak Gurnah, the most recent winner of the Nobel Prize *August’s literary losses (sadly, several) and page-to-screen releases (some based on short stories) *And for fun: a list of homes lived in or imagined by famous authors that are currently on the market

Happy Labor Day weekend!

(Featured photo taken from Publishers Weekly)

—

My July round-up of book news includes:

*The books that made the longlist for the 2022 Booker Prize

*The latest on another potential “Big Five” publishing merger

*July’s novel-to-film releases (one is being called a “swampy Twilight”)

*A Gone Girl-themed cruise along the Danube (pitched as a “killer opportunity”)

*A brief history of “Paperback Book Day”

and more!

(Image from Literary Hub)

—

Highlights from my June round-up of book news include:

*The winner of a major book award and the end of another

*The newly discovered novel by a French author that’s creating a stir

*A list of books that have gone viral on TikTok and are being turned into films

*The picture book that’s been out for 50 years and has been made into a musical and a movie

*Broadway’s previews of “The Kite Runner” and BAM’s stage production of “A Little Life”

Happy Birthday, America, and happy long weekend to all!

(Image from the Women’s Prize for Fiction website)

—

In my May round-up of book news you’ll find:

*The winners of the Pulitzer Prize and International Booker Award

*Margaret Atwood’s unique response to book bans

*The book about 1960s France that’s been adapted into the year’s “timeliest movie”

*The legacy of GONE GIRL over the psychological thriller market

*Amanda Gorman’s heartbreaking and hopeful new poem

and much more

(Image from the Booker Prizes website)

Read More

How Are Books Adapted for the Screen? Two Agents Demystify the Process

/
How Are Books Adapted for the Screen? Two Agents Demystify the Process

During a PEN America event I attended a few months ago, Your Option on Options, one of the speakers noted that the rise in streaming companies, coupled with the pandemic, has made today a golden age for IP content. Curious to find out if this is true, I reached out to Allison Hunter of Trellis Literary Management and Jennifer Weltz of Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, both of whom represent authors whose work has been or is being adapted for the screen.

Read More