A NaNoWriMo Takeover, An Imprint Closure, and Tegan and Sara Return to High School (again): This Week in Book News

Hello writers, and happy Friday! The roundup this week is on the shorter side – which is probably for the best since I could definitely use the extra time preparing for NaNoWriMo (which is less than ten days away). Speaking of, let’s kick things off this week with our Live Q&A with NaNo Executive Director Grant Faulkner! If you’re considering participating this year, or just enjoy listening to excellent writing advice, you should definitely check it out.

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Some sad news, Macmillan has announced they are closing Imprint.

Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group Closing Imprint

The Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group is closing Imprint, the unit formed in late 2014 to focus on branded publishing and new content creation, as well as to acquire original commercial fiction and picture books. A Macmillan spokesperson confirmed that six editorial positions will be eliminated as of December 1.

Workman Publishing has launched a campaign to support indie bookstores.

Workman Launches Campaign to Support Indie Bookstores

Workman Publishing has launched a campaign to encourage readers to buy books from their local independent bookstore this holiday season, under the slogan. “Shop Local NOW, So You Can Shop Local FOREVER,” The campaign has several parts. First is a social media campaign on YouTube featuring a series of videos with authors asking readers to buy books from local bookstores this holiday season.

Speaking of supporting indie bookstores, the legendary Strand Books (one of my favourite bookstores in the world) is facing closure due to Covid-19.

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Molly Stern, the editor behind Michelle Obama’s Becoming, has founded an independent publishing house.

Molly Stern Launches Zando

Former Crown publisher Molly Stern has returned to book publishing as the founder of Zando, an independent publisher that will develop its own list as well as partner with “influential people, platforms and institutions to acquire and publish new titles under their own imprints.

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Not The Booker Prize has been narrowed down to six finalists – be sure to vote for your favourite!

Not the Booker prize: vote now for the 2020 winner

It’s voting time in the 2020 Not the Booker prize. There are six books in contention: If you click through on the links above, you’ll be able to see my reviews of each title, and the accompanying comments. If you want the general gist: it’s been a good year.

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Canadian legends Tegan and Sara are producing a TV show based on their bestselling memoir, High School.

Tegan and Sara to produce TV series based on their High School memoir | CBC News

Calgary-raised pop duo Tegan and Sara have inked a deal to adapt their 2019 memoir High School into a television series through Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B Entertainment. Tegan and Sara’s teenage hurdles are headed to the small screen.

As the newest adaptation of Rebecca comes out this week, this is a great time to look at the sudden influx of literary classics on our screens.

Classic Literature Is Getting The Whimsical Indie Treatment

Can the temperature of a cultural moment be taken by assessing the heroes and villains of the time? If so, your teenage self might be horrified to see the dullards of your exams set texts – that Copperfield guy, Mr Elton and Emma Woodhouse, the many March sisters – are increasingly taking over cinema.

The adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sing has found its leading lady.

‘Where the Crawdads Sing’: ‘Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones Set As Lead In Film Adaptation From 3000 Pictures, Hello Sunshine & Sony

Daisy Edgar-Jones landed the starring role of Kya in the 3000 Pictures and Hello Sunshine film adaptation of Delia Owens’ New York Times bestselling novel, Where the Crawdads Sing . Set up at Sony, the film is being directed by Olivia Newman from a screenplay written by Oscar-nominated scribe Lucy Alibar.

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Natalie Portman has released a children’s book that reimagines the role of gender in classic children’s fables.

Natalie Portman releases children’s book that redraws gender lines in classic kids’ tales | CBC Radio

As Natalie Portman began reading to her two kids, a boy and a girl, she noticed something subtle but unmistakable: the books that were targeted to their genders were different. The books aimed at her son were what she calls “normal books,” and didn’t feel particularly gender-focused.

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With the release of his newest book in the His Dark Materials universe, Philip Pullman looks back at how much has changed since he first brought Lyra and Pan into our lives.

25 years of His Dark Materials: Philip Pullman on the journey of a lifetime

t was 1993 when I thought of Lyra and began writing His Dark Materials. John Major was prime minister, the UK was still in the EU, there was no Facebook or Twitter or Google, and although I had a computer and could word-process on it, I didn’t have email.

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I don’t know what’s spookier: ghost stories or the number of female ghost story writers that have been left out of the literary canon.

Unquiet spirits: the lost female ghost-story writers returning to haunt us

s we drift into the season of mists, many of us may cosy up with a ghost story or two. But who are the best known authors behind the classics, who plied their chilling trade in the Victorian and Edwardian eras?

To say 2020 is a complicated time would be an understatement, but The Guardian has compiled a list of books to help us better understand this wild time.

Thirty books to help us understand the world in 2020

A distinguished climatologist and geophysicist, Michael Mann is director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications, as well as four books, including 2012’s The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars and his forthcoming The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet, due out in January 2021 (Public Affairs Books).

Have a great weekend, everyone!