First up, a few Catalyst events coming your way in the next few weeks! Tomorrow, Saturday 25th at 9am EST (15:00 South Africa time), join The Theory of Flight author Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu as she chats with the Harare Book Club, by joining live on Twitter and Instagram @hararebookclub. And mark your calendars for 10:00pm EST on October 3rd, when Siphiwe will be participating in the Who? New! panel at the Brooklyn Book Festival!
Also tomorrow: from 10am to 1pm UK time (11:00 to 14:00 in South Africa, or 5am to 8am EST for our early birds in the USA!), join Divine Justice author Joanne Hichens as she cohosts a Crime Writing Workshop on Zoom. Can’t do the live session? The self-pace version will be available on All About Writing‘s website starting September 28th.
Finally, we’re so thrilled to see our very own Catalyst Press publicist, Ashawnta Jackson, on the front page of Crime Reads today, with her fascinating piece on how depictions of women in murder ballads illuminate the history of gender-based violence.
In book awards news, the 2021 National Book Awards longlist, the Cundill History Prize shortlist, and the 2021 Kids’ Book Choice Awards finalists were all announced this week. And ICYMI, the Booker shortlist was released last week, and features Damon Galgut from South Africa!
In celebrity book news, Miriam Margolyes (better known to us Potter fans as Professor Sprout) has a new memoir, Netflix acquired adaptation rights to all works of Roald Dahl in the company’s biggest content deal ever, and Einstein’s manuscript, which details the thinking process behind his famed theory of relativity, is set to auction for 3 million Euros in November.
And in some good news, a Pennsylvania school district finally rescinded its outrageous 2020 book ban list, which included books predominately by authors of color, a library in Copenhagen lets you check out people (in a non-creepy way), and this beloved Scottish poet is publishing her first full collection at age 86.
Time your weekly reading list roundup! Check out these must-reads from Latinx and Hispanic authors in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, and in celebration of last week’ Bisexual Awareness Week, here’s Electric Literature and Book Riot reading lists featuring bisexual main characters. Add these coffee shop romances, 1930s novels, Shirley Jackson-esque authors and online literary journals to your TBR list, and pass the time during your next road trip with these audiobook recs from The New York Times. In the YA category, here’s 35 new YA horror books, fresh reads for Gossip Girl fans, and YA books with ass-kicking fat girl leads.
For some thought-provoking reads, find out how to expand your definition of a “reading habit” to better fit your kid’s diverse interests, and what clickbait would trick your favorite classics characters. Nichole Perkins discusses how writing breaks generational curses on The Maris Review, Yiyun Li gleans writing advice from War and Peace, Andrew Martin and Benjamin Nugent critique anti-rich fiction, Thomas Gladysz remembers his favorite indie book events, and Stephen Marche considers the impending death of literary voice.
And last up, my favorite headline (and read) of the week: Helena Fitzgerald argues that “Magic Mike XXL Is Basically The Odyssey, But With Butts”.
