Literary news, world news, and life news was all a lot last week, which is why you didn’t see one of these posts last week. But we’re back, refreshed (sort of) and ready to bring you all of the bookish news you can handle!
“We all want wellness. I believe racism is a disease, and that healing can begin by reading to the kids in our lives, starting with children of the youngest ages.” Author Andrea Davis Pinkney writes about the power Black stories for NPR Books. Pinkey is also one of the judges for NPR’s Summer Reader’s Poll, which will create a list of 100 kids’ books based on readers’ suggestions. While the poll is closed now, be sure to check back to see the final list.
Language is always evolving, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise when new words are added to the lexicon. However, Merriam-Webster‘s recent addition of irregardless, has been the subject of a lot of debate. However, as Merriam-Webster pointed out on their blog, The Words of the Week, the word has been “in widespread and near-constant use since 1795. […] We do not make the English language, we merely record it.”
Last week’s issue of the New York Times‘ magazine was a fiction issue featuring short stories from 29 authors, each speaking to our current moment. Called “The Decameron Project,” the issue was “inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s “The Decameron,” written as the plague ravaged Florence in the 14th century.” The issue features stories by Uzodinma Iweala (Beasts of No Nation), Leila Slimani (The Perfect Nanny), and Dinaw Mengestu (All Our Names), among others.
The Brooklyn Academy of Music has been digging through its archives, and presenting videos of past performances and talks to enjoy at home as part of its Love from BAM festival. Check out this conversation between writers N. K. Jemisin and Ijeoma Oluo from 2019, or this 2017 performance from Sanam Marvi, a vocal interpreter of South Asia’s spiritual, folk, and classical poetry. There are also a host of new films and performances available.
Want more at-home entertainment? Join author Max Annas for a virtual event to celebrate the South African launch of his new thriller The Farm (translated by Rachel Hildebrandt Reynolds). He’ll be joined by LAPA’s Izak de Vries (LAPA’s the fantastic company that distributes our books in South Africa). The event is on July 21 at 7:30 PM, South African time, and will be live streaming on the Boekemakranka Facebook page. The Farm is out now in South Africa, and comes to North American readers in September (you can pre-order your copy now). More information about the event here.
Before Max was a crime writer, he was (and still is) a jazz scholar specializing in South African jazz. If you can’t reach Max to have him make you a playlist, check out this feature from Wisconsin Public Radio called “The Lost Years of South African Jazz.” As writer Gwen Ansell explains, “It was sonically subversive because it was an assertion of a non-tribal, urban Black identity, and the ideology of apartheid was that that simply did not and could not exist.”
Caroline Kurtz’s debut memoir A Road Called Down on Both Sides: Growing up in Ethiopia and America recently won the Presbyterian Writers Guild’s Best First Book Award. The ceremony was postponed, which meant Caroline had to give her acceptance speech from home. But she had some company. Caroline’s sister, Jane, was also awarded the Guild’s Distinguished Writer Award! The pair recorded this lovely thank you for the award committee, which you can watch here. The book is out now, and be sure to check out this slideshow of pictures from Caroline’s life growing up in Maji, Ethiopia.
“Did Sun Ra truly believe he had once been transmolecularized to Saturn? Did he really want to save black people by sending them to outer space? Was he some kind of intergalactic Marcus Garvey, who sold tickets back to Africa but never set sail? Was he pulling an elaborate prank? Does it matter?” Incredible essay by Namwali Serpell at the New York Review of Books on the life, music, and imagery of jazz musician Sun Ra. Sun Ra was also a prolific writer and reader himself. Check out his lecture and syllabus from his 1971 UC Berkeley course, “The Black Man in the Cosmos.”
And speaking of Afro-futurism, this month is the African Fantasy and Sci-fi Readathon, a month-long event launched by journalist Soila Kenya to promote African Fantasy and sci-fi fiction. Kenya has compiled a great list of books to get you started. The list includes two titles we’re really fond of: Shaka Rising and King Shaka written and illustrated by Luke Molver.
In more earthly news, the big seller of the week is Mary Trump’s Too Much Is Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, which is a look at the history of the Trump family. According to publisher Simon & Schuster, the book has sold “sold 950,000 copies by the end of Tuesday, its release date.” Despite attempts to block to book’s release (a familiar story), its sales numbers are record-setting for the publisher.