The MacArthur Foundation named 25 fellows for 2021, including authors Hanif Abdurraqib, Daniel Alarcón, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Don Mee Choi, Nicole Fleetwood, Ibram X. Kendi, Monica Muñoz Martinez, Desmond Meade, Safiya Noble, Jacqueline Stewart, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor.
Authors
Gendell Says Continuing Errors Are the Obstacle to Foundry Author Payments
Former Foundry partner Yfat Reiss Gendell answered former partner Peter McGuigan’s request that the court order her to approve outstanding payments due to authors with an extensive account of what she says have been “erroneous payments.” Going further, Gendell calls the motion “a continuation of the smear campaign that gave rise to” her countersuit for defamation, “falsely portraying Ms. Gendell as the cause of delays of payments owed to Foundry’s authors and agents.” She asks the court to sanction McGuigan “for making the frivolous motion.” McGuigan’s recent filing cited almost $80,000 in payments said to be due and awaiting approval. […]
New Stephen King Short Story to Benefit ACLU
Stephen King has partnered with digital retailer Humble Bundle to release a new original short story, with all of the proceeds going to the American Civil Liberties Union. “Red Screen” will be available exclusively through Humble Bundle now through September 16; readers can pay what they wish for access, with a $5 minimum. The story is the first “Humble Exclusive,” in which “Humble partners with innovative content creators to provide exclusive content to support charities.” “We’re so excited to partner with one of the world’s most respected names in fiction, Stephen King, to bring book lovers a brand new story […]
Forthcoming: Elle Kennedy to Bloom
New adult author Elle Kennedy will move the print editions of her hockey romance series (The Deal, The Mistake, The Score, The Goal), along with The Legacy, which publishes September 21, to Sourcebooks’ Bloom Books imprint starting October 1. Updated re-issues of her previous books are planned for 2022, and her next sports romance title is due from the line in 2023. Kimberly Brower represented Kennedy.
Substack Chips Away
In a perfect world the steady reporting on Substack and the world of book publishing would feature a stream of all the authors and publishers who turned down the well-financed subscription service’s offers, but that’s not how it works. First came the breaking news in the NY Post that Substack was going “to disrupt book publishing” with the high-profile signing of journalist Zack O’Malley Greenburg for a serialized book, We Are All Musicians Now. Then we learned about at length about the company joining the “burgeoning business” of book content by serializing two chapters of Anand Giridharadas’s book first published […]
Forthcoming
Marlon James‘s second installment in his “African Game of Thrones” Dark Star trilogy — MOON WITCH, SPIDER KING — will be published February 15, 2022. The first in the series, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, is already being adapted for the screen by Michael B. Jordan.