News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff
Literary Losses
Vernor Vinge, 5-time Hugo Award-winning science fiction writer who popularized the concepts of both cyberspace and a coming tech or AI singularity, died on March 20, 2024, at the age of 79. He had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
Vinge published his first story in 1965, in the British SF magazine New Worlds. His first novel, Grimm’s World, appeared in 1969. Vinge earned his Ph. D. in mathematics in 1971 and went on to teach math and computer science at San Diego State University. His third and fourth novels, The Peace War (1984) and Marooned in Realtime (1986) were both nominated for the Hugo Award, losing out to William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Orson Scott Card’s Speaker for the Dead. In 1993, he won the Hugo Award for his novel A Fire in the Deep (1992); the book’s sequel, A Deepness in the Sky (1999), won the Hugo, Campbell, and Prometheus awards. Vinge retired from teaching in 2000, and began writing full-time. In 2007, he won both the Hugo and a Locus Award for his 2006 novel, Rainbows End. Two of his novellas also won Hugo awards, “Fast Times at Fairmont High” (2001) and “The Cookie Monster” (2003).
During 1970s, Vernor Vinge was married to science fiction author Joan D. Vinge; the couple divorced in 1979.
A number of Vinge’s fellow writers paid tribute to him in the days following his death, including David Brin, Scott Lynch, John Scalzi, Harry Turtledove.
Obituaries and tributes: David Brin; Ars Technica; Popular Science; Reactor; The Wrap. (Several of these reference David Brin’s tribute, which is why I placed it first.) Bibliography and Biography: Goodreads; Wikipedia
Bookish News
- American Library Association reports record number of unique book titles challenged in 2023 (ALA) “Public libraries saw [a] 92% increase in [the] number of titles targeted for censorship over the previous year.”
- SFWA Announces the 59th Nebula Awards Finalists! And if you want to know which publisher dominates in SF and fantasy this year, look no further than the novel and novella shortlists. 4/6 novels and 5/6 novellas were published under one of the Tor Publishing Group imprints. (It might have been five of the six novels had Martha Wells not turned down her nomination for System Collapse — perhaps feeling, as she did in 2022, that the Murderbot books have already received significant accolades and wishing to make room for other nominees. She is, however, nominated for Which King.) The winners will be announced at the 2024 Nebula Conference, June 6-9, 2024.
- Finalists for the first annual Libby Book Awards were announced in February. (Libby Life)
- In Virginia, Censors Attempt to Axe ‘Wishtree’. (Publishers Weekly) “The middle-grade novel depicts a monoecious red oak, a tree with reproductive parts that can pollinate and flower simultaneously. In the book, originally published in 2017, the tree claims an identity that is ‘both’ female and male and responds to diverse pronouns.”
- Worcester Public Library accepts cat photos in place of overdue fines, which I think is absolutely adorable. (Boston.com)
- National Book Foundation Announces its 2024 5 Under 35 Honorees (National Book Foundation)
Worth Reading/Viewing
- Publishing Models That Rely on Gig Workers Are Bad For Everybody: Maris Kreizman explores the downside of a new publishing company, Authors Equity. (Literary Hub)
- Coming to Terms With “Cozy” Fiction (Molly Templeton, Reactor*)
- Belle of the book ball: Book Tok drives demand for immersive fantasy events among younger users (CNN)
- The Libraries of Who We Are (Molly Templeton, Reactor*)
- Bookish Death Cleaning: On What We Keep, and What It Means (Molly Templeton, Reactor*)
*Reactor is the former sci-fi & fantasy magazine Tor.com, now expanded to cover other genres and pop culture.
Free Fiction Online
- “The Care and Training of Hellhounds” (Cynthia Zhang, Translunar Travelers Lounge magazine)
- “Better Living Through Algorithms” (Naomi Kritzer; Clarkesworld) – Nebula Award short story nominee
- “Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200” (R. S. A. Garcia; Uncanny Magazine) – Nebula Award short story nominee
- “The Year Without Sunshine” (Naomi Kritzer; Uncanny Magazine) – Nebula Award novelette nominee. I loved this one!
For Writers
- Camp NaNoWriMo begins April 1! (No, that’s not an April fools joke.) You can join Camp NaNoWriMo whether or not you’ve ever participated in National Novel Writing Month before. If you’ve been avoiding the November NaNoWriMo because a goal of 50,000 words in a month seemed too intimidating to you, Camp NaNoWriMo is a great way to dive in or kickstart your writing. You can set your own goal, no matter how large or small.
Books, Movies, and TV
- Netlix’s 3-Body Problem began airing this week, and from the trailers and reviews, it looks like they have done a decent job at adapting the complex, thought-provoking hard science fiction novel by Liu Cixin — although the filmmakers (best known for Game of Thrones) have made some significant changes to setting and characters. Check out the reviews at the Guardian, the New York Times, The Verge, and the Washington Post.
- Project Hail Mary film heads into production in 2024. (Screen Rant) Drew Goddard (The Martian) is reputedly on board to write the screenplay. Ryan Gosling will star as as Ryland Grace, a former teacher who wakes up alone in a spaceship, far from Earth, with no memory of who he is or how he got there; Gosling is also one of the producers.
- The Literary Film & TV You Need to Stream in March (Literary Hub)
- Harold and the Purple Crayon gets a PG live-action adaption, coming this August. (Variety) The trailer came out recently, and it looks like fun!
Just for Fun
- Book boyfriend is intimidated by expectations set by SJM regarding certain, um, intimate acts (Instagram) Note: I wasn’t able to embed the video, sorry!
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits
Oooh, thanks for the link to the Nebula nominees. I somehow missed that they were announced already.
Naomi Kritzer has some wonderful stories. She is one of my favorite short story authors for sure.
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