News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff
It’s been a while since I posted News & Notes, and I apologize. I don’t even have a really good excuse. I’ve just been concentrating on other things, and not reading my book-news sources as assiduously as I usually do. Hopefully this collection of links makes up for it a little.
Bookish News
- The ALA announced the 2020 Newbery, Caldecott, and other youth media award winners. The Newbery went to New Kid (Jerry Craft); the Caldecott was awarded to The Undefeated (Kwame Alexander; illustrated by Kadir Nelson.) The same books also won the Coretta Scott King Award for author (New Kid) and illustrator (The Undefeated.) A. S. King’s Dig won the Printz Award for excellence in YA literature. Kevin Henkes received the Children’s Literature Legacy Award for his body of work. You can find the other awards, as well as the list of this year’s Newbery and Caldecott Honor Books, at the link.
- The Ripped Bodice Awards for Excellence in Romantic Fiction 2019 were announced Feb. 14, 2020. ” The honorees are chosen by a panel of industry experts,” and “judged equally with no category breakdown.” Some well-known names won, including Alyssa Cole (for three separate works!), Talia Hibbert, Courtney Milan, and Adrianna Herrera.
- In 2021 Budget Proposal, Trump Once Again Seeks to End Federal Library Funding (Publishers Weekly)
- Bookstore Sales Fell 5.7% in 2019 (Publishers Weekly)
- Judge Denies Bid to Seal Settlement in Audible Captions Case (Publishers Weekly)
Worth Reading/Viewing
- RWA 2020: No Happy Ending in Sight, Just Hollow Women (Sarah @ Smart Bitches Trashy Books) It’s not looking good for the Romance Writers of America. Authors are resigning their memberships. As of Feb. 12, the entire Board has resigned. I don’t think they can come back from this… and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It might be better to build an entirely new romance writers’ organization from scratch — making sure that the organizers, leadership, and membership are truly diverse and committed to remaining so, and baking safeguards into the organizational structure and rules to keep it that way in the future. (There is, in fact, at least one group currently exploring that possibility.)
Books, Movies, and TV
- Naomi Novik is working on a new fantasy trilogy; the first book will be called A Deadly Education. According to publisher Del Rey, it’s a a “twisted, super dark, super modern, female-led Harry Potter.” Given that it’s by Novik, it’s going to be amazing.
- MASTERPIECE Mystery: What’s Coming in 2020 (PBS.org) New seasons of Grantchester and Endeavour, and new series Baptiste, Van Der Valk, and Miss Scarlet and the Duke. The latter is set in Victorian England, with a female investigator — sounds delightful!
- Here’s Your 2020 Literary Film and TV Adaptation Preview (LitHub)
Bookish Video
Harrison Ford gives a plug for public libraries (and his latest movie.)
Lists
Fun or Just Plain Awesome
- Kittens Roam Freely In This Bookstore And Customers Can Adopt Them (Unilad) One more reason for me to think about visiting Nova Scotia again.
- NASA brought Voyager 2 Back Online! (Inverse) Pretty amazing, considering the space probe is 11.5 billion miles away. (OK, I know it’s not book-related, but c’mon — it’s awesome!)
Bookish Quote
Lark
Love that quote! 😀
Lark recently posted…99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne
Lark_Bookwyrm
Me too; it makes me chuckle every time I see it!
Bea's Book Nook
Hah, love that bookish quote. I need prints of that to gift to various relatives. 😀
Bea’s Book Nook recently posted…Review, Excerpt, Giveaway, & Friday Memes: The Last Sister by Kendra Elliot
Lark_Bookwyrm
I know; isn’t it great?!
Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits
Nice round-up! I hadn’t heard that the Newbery Award had been given already, thanks for that link.
I wish the best of luck to the former-RWA authors. I hope they can figure out something better as a result of this mess.
Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits recently posted…Liebster Award