One thing is clear in advance of tonight’s National Book Awards ceremony: The list of fiction nominees is the most commercial crop of titles in contention for many years. Kaveh Akbar’s MARTYR! is among the top-selling debuts of the year, with sales of approximately 46,000 hardcovers so far as measured by Circana Bookscan. That puts it well head of the hardcover sales of the last three NBA fiction winners (BLACKOUTS; THE RABBIT HUTCH; and HELL OF A BOOK). Miranda July’s breakout ALL FOURS was one of the summer’s most talked about books, and has sold just over 99,000 hardcovers. And […]
Awards
Former Giller Winner Asks To Be Removed From Prize Site
Madeleine Thien, author of 2016 Giller Prize winning Do Not Say We Have Nothing, has asked the prize to remove her name, image, and work, from their website in protest to their ongoing sponsorship by Scotiabank. According to a letter sent by Thien to Giller Foundation advisory council members Margaret Atwood and Daphna Rabinovitch, and intended for wider circulation among the board of directors and advisory council, Rabinovitch led Thien to believe that the prize planned to break from the bank. Thien and other past Giller winners then helped Rabinovitch raise money for the 2024 prize winners and shortlist. “I […]
Amazon Names Its Best Books of the Year
Harvey’s ‘Orbital’ Wins The Booker
Paul Coates’s NBF Literarian Award Is Questioned
This year’s National Book Foundation Literarian Award recipient Paul Coates has been accused of publishing “racist, antisemitic, and homophobic books and authors” in an “enthusiastic and uncritical” manner, in an article by Mark Oppenheimer in Arc Magazine. That article expands considerably on questions first raised in a piece in The Jewish Insider by Matthew Kassel, which focused on one book in particular. Additionally, Oppenheimer suggests the selection “was a surprising choice” because Coates previously served as a National Book Foundation board member. The Literarian Award is given for “outstanding service to the literary community.” Coates, who is the father of […]