News & Notes is an occasional Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff
Bookish News
- 2022 Newbery, Caldecott, Printz, and other ALA award winners (Publishers Weekly; ALA) It was a great year for diverse books and authors. The Newbery went to Barbra Higuera’s The Last Cuentista, the Caldecott to Watercress (written by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Jason Chin), and the Printz was awarded to Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley. The rest of the slate, including the Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz Honor books as well as ALA’s many other awards, also reflected the wide diversity of American authors and readers. (NPR)
- Win Books for Life from Bookshop.org (Publishers Weekly). Bookshop is celebrating its anniversary by offering one lucky reader a $600 gift certificate every year, for life. You can enter here.
- PEN America announced its 2022 literary award finalists
- Gaza bookshop to reopen after unexpectedly successful global campaign (The Guardian)
- Mayor witholds library funds because of queer materials; you can help raise it (Book Riot)
Worth Reading/Viewing
- The Financial Ecosystem of the Writer is one writer’s take on book buying dilemmas: new or used, from indie booksellers or huge conglomerates. (author Laurie R. King, on her blog)
- Maybe Reading Goals Are Good, Actually (Molly Templeton, Tor.com)
- When Is It OK To Let a Bookstore Die? asks ex-bookseller Danika Ellis. (Book Riot)
For Writers
- A Slippery Slope: Alesha Brown on launching and marketing your books, whether you are traditionally published or self-published.
- The Artist’s Way at 30: Alicia Keys, Pete Townshend and the surprising re-birth of a creativity classic (The Guardian)
Cool, Fun, and Awesome
- Piers Cawley’s “A Child of the Library” (above) is a charming folk song in support of libraries—and in protest of their closure. (Background: In the 2000s, the British government defunded and closed a number of Britain’s libraries.) You can find the lyrics here.
- Check out this Little Free Library swag collated by Book Riot. (The swag is not free, alas.)
- Have you tried Wordle yet? The once-a-day word guessing game has the Internet abuzz. Basically, it’s like Mastermind, but for five-letter words. You have 6 chances to guess the word, and the puzzle app will tell you (with colors) which letters are correct, which letters appear in the word but in a different position, and which letters aren’t in the word at all. It’s a fun, it’s quick, it requires a certain amount of logical thinking and a decent vocabulary—and because you can only play it once a day, it doesn’t become a time-sink like most of the games on your phone.
Bookish Quote
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits
That Ibram X. Kendi quote is wonderful. Thank you for sharing!
I have seen so many friends/acquaintances post their Wordle screenshots, and I’ve been curious, but I have also managed so far to not get sucked in myself. I could see it becoming an obsession (even with the once-per-day limit).
Thanks for the links to the Newbery etc awards! So cool to see more diversity in these awards recently.
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…Reading Wrap-Up: January 2022