The #PublishingPaidMe hashtag is making waves on Twitter, raising awareness about the massive discrepancies in author advances for writers of color compared to their white counterparts. On June 8, more than 1,000 workers in the publishing industry participated in a day-long strike, taking the day off their regular work duties to be “in service of the Black community: protesting, organizing, fundraising support, phone banking, mutual aid,” and working on books by Black creators.
Working on a COVID-themed manuscript? So is everyone else, according to literary agent Erin Clyburn, who reported to NPR that agents are seeing more and more writers submitting pandemic stories. But don’t rush it and sacrifice quality, she begs.
Electric Lit lists 24 new and forthcoming books that celebrate all facets of Black lives, and urges readers to seek Black literature beyond books on racism. NBC News published a thought-provoking piece on the rise of anti-racist book lists, and Washington Post gives some numbers on the massive surge of readers buying books on race.
In award news, The Shirley Jackson Award nominees were just announced. The award celebrates “outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.” And if you haven’t read them yet, here are the complete texts for the five AKO Caine Prize finalists. The Prize received an unprecedented (and incredible!) 222 submissions from 28 African countries this year.
Nigerian writer Emeka Joseph Nwankwo wrote on how African women in publishing are bringing inclusivity to the forefront, a necessity urged by Girl, Woman, Other author Bernardine Evaristo this week.
Missing the museum? Electric Lit recommends 10 books set in museums to last you through lockdown. Not enough to satisfy your escapism bug? LitHub has you covered, with five 20th-century books about travel. And ICYMI: an argument for reading (and against shaming) the summer “beach read.”
In Catalyst news, Ameera Patel’s Outside the Lines officially hit North American shelves this week! Read an excerpt on CrimeReads. Bitter Pill, the final installment of Peter Church’s beloved Dark Web trilogy, get its North American debut on Monday. The e-books of the full series are available for 25% off on our site all summer long.
Finally, Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist and Ogresse creator Cécile McLorin Salvant reads Black lesbian poet Audre Lorde’s “The Bees,” published posthumously in the 2009 anthology Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry.
