Ask Kobo Anything, A Bloomsbury Deal, and Hemingway’s Boat: This Week in Book News

Happy Friday, everyone! And now that it’s officially June, I can wish you all a Happy Audiobook Month and a Happy Pride Month as well! We had a great live event this week, where Tara, Shayna, Laura, and Joni answered all of your promo questions. If you didn’t get a chance to catch the live event, you can watch it here:

Now let’s take a quick look at this week in publishing news.

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Bloomsbury has purchased indie publisher Head of Zeus.

Bloomsbury buys Head of Zeus in £8.5m deal

Bloomsbury has bought indie publisher Head of Zeus in a £8.5m deal, in a move greeted generally positively by authors and agents. In an announcement yesterday (2nd June), Bloomsbury said the acquisition would “provide a strong addition to Bloomsbury’s thriving consumer division and support our long-term consumer growth strategy, with new high-quality authors and effective publishing across all formats, including e-book and audio”.

There has been some controversy around a line in Elin Hilderbrand’s new novel.

Readers Angered over Anne Frank Reference in New Hilderbrand Novel

Author Elin Hilderbrand has come under fire for a passage in her new book that some readers on social media are calling anti-Semitic. The bestselling writer’s new book Golden Girls was published by Little, Brown on June 1. In it, character Vivian “Vivi” Howe plans to stay in the attic of her friend Savannah’s parents’ home on Nantucket.

Margaret Atwood is publishing a new essay collection next spring.

Margaret Atwood publishing new essay collection about the ‘burning questions’ of our time | CBC Books

Books Burning Questions: Essays 2004‒2021 will be published on March 1, 2022 Margaret Atwood is collecting essays she has written over the past 17 years and compiling them in a new book. Burning Questions: Essays 2004‒2021 will be published on March 1, 2022. The collection will be published by McClelland & Stewart.

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There has been a lot of literary prize news this week:

The winners of the Governor General’s Literary Awards have been announced.

Here are the winners of the 2020 Governor General’s Literary Awards | CBC Books

The 2020 Governor General’s Literary Awards have been revealed. Among the winners is Cree writer Michelle Good for her debut novel Five Little Indians and renowned Canadian American poet Anne Carson for her original work Norma Jeane Baker of Troy . The Governor General’s Literary Awards are among Canada’s oldest and most prestigious prizes.

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good has won the Amazon First Novel Award.

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good wins $60K Amazon First Novel Award | CBC Books

Michelle Good has won the 2021 Amazon Canada First Novel Award for her novel . The $60,000 prize honours the best first novel in English published the previous year by a citizen or resident of Canada. chronicles the quest of five residential school survivors to come to terms with their past and find a way forward.

Thomas King has won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.

Thomas King wins $15K Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for Indians on Vacation | CBC Books

Thomas King has won the 2021 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for his novel . The $15,000 prize recognizes the best humour writing in Canada. Indians on Vacation is about a couple named Bird and Mimi, who decide to travel through Europe after discovering postcards from Mimi’s long-lost Uncle Leroy, who sent them while on his own European adventure almost 100 years ago.

And last but not least, At Night All Blood is Black has won the International Booker Prize.

‘Frightening’ Tale of Senegalese Soldier Wins International Booker Prize

“At Night All Blood Is Black,” a novel written by David Diop and translated by Anna Moschovakis, had already received rave reviews. LONDON – “At Night All Blood Is Black,” a short novel about a Senegalese soldier’s descent into madness while fighting for France in World War I, was named on Wednesday as the winner of the International Booker Prize, the prestigious award for fiction translated into English.

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A book looking behind the scenes of cult classic Shaun of the Dead is coming out this fall.

First look: This book goes inside the making of ‘Shaun of the Dead’

Brace yourself for You’ve Got Red on You. Meredith has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Meredith may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. We all know the 2004 horror-comedy Shaun of the Dead as a cult classic, but for a time it was just a harebrained idea dreamed up in the back of a taxi.

Actor Matthew Rhys has restored one of the last of Hemingway’s boats.

Inside Matthew Rhys’ Hemingway-inspired ‘tale of madness’ to restore a boat

The actor walked in the footsteps of the Old Man and the Sea author by restoring one of the last Ernest Hemingway boats. To say Matthew Rhys was productive during the pandemic lockdowns of 2020 doesn’t even sand the surface of what has turned into a full-fledged Hemingway-inspired experience for the Perry Mason actor.

And lastly, I thoroughly enjoyed this essay on the letter X, it’s historical significance, and it’s usage within (or rather outside) the gender binary.

X is the Best Letter in the Alphabet

It’s now used to indicate sex and gender beyond the binary. But X has always been powerful. As a bookish child, I loved most of all an anthology of stories that sat high on my parents’ white bookshelves. At night, my siblings and I would gather on my littlest sister’s bed while one of my parents read to us.

Have a great weekend!

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Staff Pick

Laura, Author Engagement Specialist

“I’ve come to expect great things from Taylor Jenkins Reid, and her latest novel didn’t disappoint. Set in 1983, Malibu Rising tells the story of the famous Riva siblings. Beginning on the day of their epic end of summer party, the novel weaves between their childhood, and the party that will change their lives forever. It’s a beautiful story about family and what we carry with us across generations, and what you can choose to leave behind.”