There’s loads happening in books. Here’s some of it.

News

• Fitzcarraldo has bought the rights to four books by Olga Tokarczuk.
• Petina Gappah had a staged reading of her play, Black Sunlight. She’s also writing her first novel in Shona.
• The Hugos chaos and fallout continues with the resignation of Hugo Awards Marketing Committee members. And here’s Vulture on the scandal (loool the awards committee pulled a ZANU, for those who know Zim politics: “The volunteer body typically releases the numbers the same evening as the ceremony, or within days of the event, but for this year, the stats didn’t arrive until 91 days after the event, per Esquire.”) Anyway, noms have opened for Glasgow 2024.
• In plagues are contagious: some Canadians are curious to try book burning banning.
• The National Black Arts Festival hosted its first banned books festival in the US in Atlanta, GA. from Feb 24-25.
• and US lawmaker Angie Nixon is opening The Cafe Resistance Bookstore in North Jacksonville, FL, US. in response to “low literacy rates and state laws on books in classrooms.” It will be a multipurpose space, eventually functioning as a community hub and hosting tutoring programmes and wellness seminars.
• Related: public libraries *have morphed into community centres* which I, for one, think is an excellent argument for their existence tbh. Support public libraries; don’t let them die.
• Also related: Israel is not only destroying lives but also libraries and universities in Gaza.
• Questlove’s Hip-Hop is History has been acquired by White Rabbit from FSG. It’s out June 11, 2024.
• Michelle Obama won a Grammy.
• Moroccan short story writer Mohammed Ibrahim Bouallou passed away Feb 24, per Khalid Lyamlahy on Twitter/X.
• Rutendo Chichaya, winner of the last shonareads/HRB short story competition, will be contributing to The Makings of Revolutionary Hope Anthology, which will aim to further “critical awareness on the legacies of colonialism in Africa.”
• And previous competition winner (twice!!) Jackie Chikambure has a book out on Amazon.com, check it out! Anaishe: She is with God, but is He with her?
• Mubanga Kalimamukwento, Haimbe Mbozi and Fiske S. Nyirongo launched a Zambian lit mag, Ubwali! Check it out.
• Rebecca Watson (little scratch) has a new novel coming out in July 2024 from Faber. Title? I Will Crash.
• Jordan Ifueko’s Raybearer is coming to Netflix at some point, and there’ll be a new novel too, The Maid and the Crocodile in August 2024.
• Also, Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time, which hasn’t even been published yet, **to the Beeb.