Another week has come and gone, and on this warm Friday before the summer solstice, I am really looking forward to spending the next two days reading outside and enjoying the sunshine.

Today is Juneteenth, the day that marks the anniversary of when the last enslaved people in Texas found out they were free, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. In honor of Juneteenth, I encourage you to read this collection of articles on Literary Hub about the history of Juneteenth, the movement to make Juneteenth a national holiday, and other readings on Black History.

As antiracist book sales continue to rise, some booksellers are struggling with profiting off the Black Lives Matter movement.

Bernadine Evaristo, the author of Girl, Woman, Other, discussed the surge of Black authors on the bestseller list.

Multiple members of The National Book Critics Circle, including the president of the organization, have resigned after conversations regarding their statement on Black Lives Matter were leaked.

Canadian author and educator Nadia L. Hohn is set to host #KidLit4BlackLives, a virtual children’s literature rally, tonight at 7pm EST.

Reni Eddo-Lodge has become the first Black British author to top UK book charts.

Literary review magazine Bad Form is launching a new prize for young BIPOC writers.

100 poets in Chicago have come together to write one poem about the city’s gun violence.

Zadie Smith’s latest essay collection, Intimations, which was written during the early months of lockdown (and thus making me feel terrible about my level of productivity during quarantine), will be released this July.

Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro is set to release his next novel, Klara and the Sun, next spring.

Bestselling novelist Carlos Ruiz Zafón has passed away at the age of 55.

Tea Mutonji’s short story collection Shut Up, You’re Pretty has won the Trillium Book Award for best book in Ontario.

AudioFile Magazine has announced the five audiobook narrators who will be receiving their lifetime achievement award!

An adaptation of Beth Macy’s book Dopesick is in the works at Hulu with Michael Keaton set to star.

A summer literary series brought to you by Stella Artois and narrated by Andy Cohen is both something that’s happening and a sentence I never thought I’d say.

If you were curious about whether or not the plethora of celebrity story-times that were taking place at the beginning of isolation were in breach of copyright law, here’s your answer!

Finally, in one of my favourite articles of past the week, three authors discuss what Pride means to them in 2020, fifty years after the first Pride march and in a year where no Pride marches can occur.

Have a wonderful, and safe weekend everyone. And to all the dads out there, Happy Father’s Day!

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Tara, Author Experience Manager

“I haven’t finished yet, but I’m enjoying it… enjoying is the wrong word. I’m enjoying the prose for a tough story.”