Robb Pearlman has joined Smart Pop Books as editor-in-chief. He was previously associate publisher at Rizzoli. Chilean author Luis Sepulveda, who lived in Spain after being exiled by Augusto Pinochet in the 1980s, died on Thursday from Covid-19. He first contracted the disease at the Correntes d’Escritas festival in February. Awards Christy Lefteri’s The Beekeeper of Aleppo won the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Cancelled Bouchercon 2020, planned for October 15-18 in Sacramento has been cancelled “out of an abundance of caution and concern for the health and safety of our community.” The organizers write in a statement, “We have no […]
Bookstores
Briefs
At Canongate, Andrea Joyce has stepped down as rights director after 13 years with the company. Jessica Neale succeeds her as rights and contracts director. Forthcoming Penguin Random House will publish a digital cookbook on May 5 to benefit restaurants and their workers, priced at $5.99, FAMILY MEAL: Recipes from Our Community. It features over 40 recipes by chefs and home cooks who publish with PRH imprint, covering what they are cooking and drinking at home right now, and all proceeds will benefit the RWCF COVID 19 Crisis Relief Fund. It includes a foreword from Restaurant Workers’ Community Fund co-founder […]
People, Etc.
At Viking/Penguin Books, Rebecca Marsh has been promoted to associate director of publicity. Shelby Meizlik has joined as executive publicist. Tricia Lawrence has been promoted to senior agent at Erin Murphy Literary Agency. Awards The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced recipients for its highest honors for excellence in the arts, including two of last year’s Pulitzer-winning authors. Richard Powers will receive the William Dean Howells Medal for THE OVERSTORY. The prize is “given every five years for the most distinguished American work of fiction published during that time.” Yale professor David Blight, author of six books on slavery, […]
Relief Given, and Still Needed
First Book says its Covid-19 Action Response has shipped 1.3 million books and distributed digital access codes for more than 2 million children, all donated by publishers and related organizations. CEO Kyle Zimmer, president, CEO and co-founder of First Book. “These books are so meaningful. They super-charge learning for kids in need, who are particularly vulnerable right now—when schools closed, these kids lost a place that was not only providing education, but so many different forms of critical support…. Not a day goes by that we aren’t grateful to our publishers.” Coffee House Press will commission original, short, digital works […]
Barnes & Noble Warehouse Workers Say Illness Is More Widespread Than Acknowledged
In addition to the five confirmed cases of COVID-19 among employees at Barnes & Noble’s big Monroe, NJ warehouse, the company acknowledged in a recent memo that they “have had nine employees contact us with confirmed cases” of the virus. The first confirmed case of an employee testing positive was back on March 12 by one account (and April 1 by another), which is part of why workers staging a protest Tuesday insisted the company has not done enough to protect them. NJ.com says about 15 employees participated in the protest. Beyond the nine confirmed cases, a representative for employee […]
As COVID-19 Cases Appear at Barnes & Noble’s Warehouse, Workers Organize Protest
With the first cases of COVID-19 at Barnes & Noble’s big 1.4-million-square-foot distribution center in Monroe, NJ, a coalition of warehouse workers and other advocates have planned a protest outside of the facility on Tuesday afternoon “to demand protections.” The organizers note the facility “employs nearly 800 workers, most of whom are Latino immigrants.” Among their demands are asking for a two week closure of the facility — with paid time-off — for “full sanitization,” with “better safety protections, including sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE), social distancing and cleaning” thereafter along with “hazard pay” and “recognition of the ability to […]