Hot from the Press
Happy pub week to The Cedarville Shop and the Wheelbarrow Swap! This is the second middle-grade novel from South African author Bridget Krone that we’ve had the privilege to publish (we published Small Mercies in 2020) and we’re so excited to share it with you. Kirkus Reviews called it “a compelling look at friendship and community uplift under harsh circumstances.” Congrats, Bridget!
We’re so thrilled to have been named one of five finalists for the Amber Grant for Women’s September grant! This amazing organization gives $10,000 to a women-owned small business every single month, and we’re very grateful for their recognition and support. [Ed note: We, unfortunately, weren’t awarded the Amber grant, but we are so proud to be part of this amazing group of women entrepreneurs! And we extend our huge congratulations to grantee Brandy Witherow, owner of Lemon Island Seafood, and all of the Amber Grant finalists!]
Two authors from Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa, Innocent Chizaram Ilo and Caine Prize winner Idza Luhumyo, are featured in this great article from Afrocritik highlighting “15 emerging and gifted voices amplifying African literature”. Disruption, which we co-published last year with the South African non-profit Short Story Day Africa, features stories from Innocent, Idza, and 19 other emerging authors from Africa.
And last up, don’t miss the virtual awards ceremony for this year’s Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards, happening Thursday October 27th at 6pm EST. We’re so thrilled that Sifiso Mzobe and his debut novel Young Blood were selected as a finalist for this year’s award. We’re rooting for you, Sifiso!
In other news…
The winner of the 2022 Booker Prize is Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka for his novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, published by Sort Of Books. Read more about Shehan, and here’s all the shortlisted authors discussing their books. ICYMI, French author Annie Ernaux was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature last week. Barnes and Noble announced the winner of their Discover Prize for debut writers, and Andrew Carnegie announced their longlist for the 2023 Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction.
In celebrity book news, Chelsea Manning’s book published this week, as did Paul Newman’s posthumous memoir (almost 14 years after his death). Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is writing a memoir about her six-year imprisonment in Iran. Actor Sean Hayes is releasing a queer YA novel, and so is singer Hayley Kiyoko. Jared Kushner’s best-seller list position was, unsurprisingly, not organic. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky made an appearance at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and speaking of Zelensky, Crown has announced that it will publish A Message from Ukraine, a collection of 16 of Zelensky’s war speeches since 2019. Rumor has it, Al Pacino just sold his memoir for $5 million.
A Wrinkle in Time is getting the Broadway treatment, and Goodnight Moon turned 75. Everybody’s favorite demigod Percy Jackson is getting a new book. Taika Waititi is set to direct and produce the miniseries adaptation of Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown.
Virago founder and women writers champion Carmen Callil has passed away. A “rogue” Ingram employee was caught swapping pro-choice books for Christian books, and a new anti-LGBTQ+ bill in Russia is threatening to ban the classics. NFTs have officially infiltrated the publishing world. And to wrap up with some good news, Nora Roberts is saving libraries across the States, the webcomics market is booming, and 46 classic Tamil texts are being translated into braille.
#ReadingAfrica roundup
In this section, we share publishing news, book recs, and more all focused on African and African diaspora authors. Don’t forget to mark your calendars for our sixth annual #ReadingAfrica Week, this year December 4-10!
The Center for Black Literature is celebrating 20 years this week! Thanks so much for all you do. The New Daughters of Africa anthology is getting a German translation, and the anthology features two writers we’re proud to publish— Reneilwe Malatji and Yewande Omotso. Nigerian filmmaker Stanley Kalu is set to write and debut the film adaptation of M.T. Anderson’s controversial YA novel Feed, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Award, and Bernardine Evaristo will be one of this year’s Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative mentors. Here’s a Black poet reading list, and in honor of Hispanic Heritage month, here’s a roundup of the best children’s books with Afro-Latinx main characters.
From the Backlist
In honor of The Cedarville Shop and the Wheelbarrow Swap hitting shelves, here’s Bridget’s first book, Small Mercies, which we published to North American audiences in February 2020!
Named a Best Middle-Grade Book of 2020 by Kirkus Reviews
2021 Outstanding International Books List, United States Board on Books for Young People
“Sensitive, funny, and tender.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Full of light and sweetness. Readers will carry the melody in their hearts long after the last page is turned.” —New York Journal of Books
“You will not leave the pages of this book without feeling somehow smarter and wiser and kinder… An offering of love on the page.” — Kathi Appelt, New York Times Bestseller, Newbery Honor Award and National Book Honor winner
Mercy lives in modern-day Pietermaritzburg, South Africa with her eccentric foster aunts—two elderly sisters so poor, they can only afford one lightbulb. A nasty housing developer is eying their house. And that same house suddenly starts falling apart—just as Aunt Flora starts falling apart. She’s forgetting words, names, and even how to behave in public. Mercy tries to keep her head down at school so nobody notices her. But when a classmate frames her for stealing the school’s raffle money, Mercy’s teachers decide to take a closer look at her home life.
Along comes Mr. Singh, who rents the back cottage of the house on Hodson Road. When he takes Mercy to visit a statue in the middle of the city, she learns that the shy, nervous “Mohandas” he tells stories about is actually Gandhi, who spent a cold and lonely night in the waiting room of the Pietermaritzburg train station over a hundred years ago. It marked the beginning of his life’s quest for truth…and the visit to his statue marks Mercy’s realization that she needs—just like Gandhi—to stand up for herself.
Mercy needs a miracle. But to summon that miracle, she has to find her voice and tell the truth—and that truth is neither pure nor simple.
Read an excerpt, check out the discussion guide, or try out this fun crossword!
