Frankfurt, Time Magazine’s Best Fantasy, and Ranking Mr. Darcy: This Week in Book News

Hello and happy Friday everyone! We hope all our Canadian writers had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend last week, hopefully with an excess of pie (pumpkin is my personal favourite). We here at KWL are gearing up for NaNoWriMo and have a Facebook Live event with Grant Faulkner, NaNoWriMo’s executive director, this upcoming Thursday (October 22^nd). Be sure to check it out and get those questions ready! We are also thrilled to announce our newest addition to our promotions tab, our #OwnVoices free page! You can learn more about this promo here, and as always, if you have any questions be sure to let us know in the comments or send us an email at writinglife@kobo.com

---

KWL’s Nick Coveney is speaking at SelfPubCon this weekend! He’ll be discussing growing your indie publishing business and going wide at Kobo – his panel is on Saturday October 17 and is slated to begin at 4pm GMT (11am EST). You can catch Nick’s talk here (the link won’t go live until the event begins.

---

A huge congratulations to KWL author R.E. Donald – their novel Yellowhead Blues has been selected as a finalist for the 2020 Whistler Independent Book Award in Fiction!

Yellowhead Blues a finalist for the 2020 Whistler Independent Book Award!

I’m delighted to announce that the fifth novel in the Highway Mysteries series, Yellowhead Blues, has been selected as one of three finalists for the 2020 Whistler Independent Book Award in Fiction! The fourth novel, Sundown on Top of the World, was a finalist for the 2016 Whistler Independent Book Award in Crime Fiction.

---

The Ford and Andrew W. Mellon foundations have partnered to launch Disability Futures Fellows, a new grant designed to raise the visibility of Disabled creatives.

Ford, Mellon Team to Award $1M In Grants to Disability Futures Fellows

The Ford and Andrew W. Mellon foundations have joined forces to launch Disability Futures Fellows, a new funding initiative designed to provide support to and raise the visibility of disabled creatives across the full range of creative disciplines.

The Frankfurt Virtual Book Fair kicked off this week.

Frankfurt Opens Virtual Book Fair

The all-virtual Frankfurt Book Fair opened yesterday and continues today, with more than 4,000 digital exhibitors, 70 hours of trade events and 260 hours of programming. Among the first topics under discussion were what U.S. readers were interested in from foreign publishers.

Canada is the guest of honour at both the 2020 and 2021 Frankfurt Book Fair, giving Canadian publishers the opportunity to internationally showcase Indigenous authors.

Indigenous voices add diversity to Canadian literature | DW | 14.10.2020

Many Germans’ literary image of Native Americans has been shaped by the best-selling Winnetou books written by Karl May in the late 19th century. The German author had never left his own country when he started writing his stories centering on a fictional Apache hero, Winnetou, who becomes friends with the first-person narrator, Old Shatterhand.

Novelist David Grossman spoke at Frankfurt about the need for writers to bear witness to 2020.

David Grossman calls on writers to bear witness to pandemic

The celebrated Israeli novelist David Grossman has called on his fellow writers to be “trenchant witnesses” to the Covid-19 pandemic, and to “sound warnings in every place” where civil and human rights are threatened as a result of the crisis.

---

The Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize for Literature, has named two new members.

Nobel-awarding Swedish Academy fills last posts left vacant by crisis

STOCKHOLM, Oct 13 (Reuters) – The Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel literature prize, named two new members on Tuesday to fill remaining vacancies on its 18-strong panel and draw a line under years of controversy that called its reputation into question.

The Forest of Reading, Canada’s largest reading award program, has announced their nominated titles for 2021.

Forest of Reading reveals chosen books for 2021 program – students across Canada will choose the winners | CBC Books

Books Forest of Reading is the largest reading award program in Canada. More than 270,000 students will participate in the program. The Forest of Reading has announced the nominated titles for 2021. Students from kindergarten to high school are encouraged to read from a selection of shortlisted books and vote for their favourites.

The shortlist for the Goldsmiths Prize has been announced.

Goldsmiths Prize Shortlist Is Revealed | Kirkus Reviews

The Goldsmiths Prize has released its shortlist of six books, according to the Guardian , including titles from Booker Prize winner DBC Pierre and National Book Critics Circle Award winner Xiaolu Guo.

---

Children’s author Michael Rosen is writing a book about his near-fatal experience with Covid-19.

Michael Rosen to publish book about his near-fatal Covid-19 ordeal

After spending 47 days in intensive care fighting coronavirus, Michael Rosen is bringing out a book about his experiences with the illness, from the doctor who said he had a 50/50 chance of survival to the nurses who cared for him while he was in a coma.

Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic minority leader in Georgia, is writing a political thriller due out in 2021.

Stacey Abrams Is Writing a Political Thriller | Kirkus Reviews

Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, will publish a political thriller in 2021, magazine reports. While Justice Sleeps is a thriller set within the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court; its protagonist is a young law clerk whose life turns upside down when the judge she works for falls into a coma.

Amnesty International and Angelina Jolie are partnering to write a book for teenagers, highlighting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Amnesty International, Angelina Jolie and Geraldine Van Bueren partner to author child rights book

Amnesty International and Angelina Jolie announced today that they are collaborating on a book for teenagers, informed by children and young people, highlighting the rights contained in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Ava DuVernay will write, produce, and direct an adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s non-fiction book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents for Netflix.

DuVernay To Direct Caste Film Adaptation | Kirkus Reviews

Netflix announced that Emmy winner Ava DuVernay will write, produce, and direct a movie adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s Kirkus-starred 2020 nonfiction book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents , for the streaming service. The book is a finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction, which will be awarded on Nov.

Laura Esquivel’s 1989 novel Like Water for Chocolate is getting two sequels and a musical adaptation.

Like Water for Chocolate Sequels Coming | Kirkus Reviews

Laura Esquivel’s hit novel Like Water for Chocolate is getting two sequels, Vulture reports. Esquivel said she’s writing a book titled Tita’s Diary that will focus on 20 years in the life of the protagonist of Like Water for Chocolate. Like its predecessor, Tita’s Diary will also feature recipes, along with art that includes photographs and pressed flowers.

---

With the help of a panel of fantasy legends, and a phenomenal introduction by N.K. Jemisin, Time Magazine has produced a list of the 100 best fantasy books of all time. How many have you read?

The 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time

With a panel of leading fantasy authors, TIME presents the 100 most engaging, inventive and influential works of fantasy fiction

Winnie the Pooh first appeared on the page and captured our hearts 90 years ago this week; here are 90 facts you may not know about the tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff:

90 weird and wonderful facts about Winnie-the-Pooh | CBC Books

Jan. 18 is Winnie-the-Pooh day, in honour of creator A.A. Milne’s birthday. He was born on this day in 1882. To celebrate, here are 90 weird and wonderful facts about the Hundred Acre Wood. 1. Winnie-the-Pooh was published on Oct. 14, 1926 and was an immediate success, selling 35,000 copies in the U.K.

Arguably the most important article of the week, on the 25^th anniversary of the BBC’s legendary adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, Lit Hub’s Emily Temple has done us the favour of ranking every Mr. Darcy.

Every Mr. Darcy* Ranked

Lords and ladies, today is the 25th anniversary of the day Mr. Darcy first came out of the lake on the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. You know exactly what I’m talking about. You may have worn your tapes through replaying it since then, but no one can forget their first time.

Have a wonderful weekend!