Collection Management

Karen Leeder’s translation of Durs Grünbein’s Psyche Running wins the Griffin Poetry Prize. Valérie Bah’s Subterrane wins the Amazon Canada First Novel Award. The shortlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year is announced. New Circana BookScan research shows the growth over the last year of “dark romance.” The New Press has layoffs due to decreased sales and funding, partly attributed to book bans targeting progressive titles. After selecting James Frey’s novel Next to Heaven, Book of the Month responds to criticism about Frey’s use of generative AI. Tomorrow is Teach Truth Day of Action, a planned nationwide day to fight bans on books and on teaching certain subjects in schools. Plus, Page to Screen and interviews with Ocean Vuong, Susan Choi, and Jacinda Ardern.

N.S. Nuseibeh’s essay collection Namesake wins the UK’s Jhalak Prose Prize for writers of color, while Mimi Khalvati’s Collected Poems wins the Jhalak Poetry Prize. Amazon editors pick the 10 best books of 2025 so far. The Guardian writes about how the U.S. far right is trying to spread its ideology through the publishing world and reports on Russia’s “Z literature,” a nationalistic subgenre of fantasy fiction that may be encouraging teens to enlist in the war on Ukraine. AI was the hot topic at this year’s U.S. Book Fair. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Susan Choi, Lynne Olson, and Melissa Febos.

All the October 2025 Prepub Alerts in one place, plus a downloadable spreadsheet of all the titles.

Bernardine Evaristo is honored with the Women’s Prize Outstanding Contribution Award for her body of work. Dora Prieto, Jess Goldman, and Phillip Dwight Morgan win RBC Bronwen Wallace Awards. Allison King’s The Phoenix Pencil Company is the new Reese Witherspoon book club pick. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Baker & Taylor adds three distribution clients. Director James Cameron will cowrite a screen adaptation of Joe Abercrombie’s The Devils. Plus, best books of the year (so far) and titles for Pride Month.

First proclaimed Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in 1999 and expanded by President Obama in 2011, LGBTQIA+ Pride Month commemorates the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan and celebrates the LGBTQIA+ community. The following books, ranging from romance and mystery to social sciences and memoirs, honor the experiences, legacies, and accomplishments of LGBTQIA+ people. 

Audiofile announces the winners of the Golden Voices Audiobook Narrator awards. Dmitri Strotsev and Nadia Kandrusevich are named the 2025 Prix Voltaire laureates. Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Atmosphere: A Love Story is the GMA June book club pick. Maggie Stiefvater’s The Listeners is the B&N pick. The annual Audio Publishers Association Sales Survey showed double-digit gains over 2023. Scholastic will integrate its trade publishing, book fairs, and book clubs. Interviews arrive with Melissa Febos, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Molly Jong-Fast, Yrsa Daley-Ward, Todd S. Purdum, and Jacinda Ardern.

Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Atmosphere leads holds this week. Also in demand are titles by James Patterson and Bill Clinton, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Molly Jong-Fast, and Claire Lynch. People’s book of the week, A Family Matter by Claire Lynch, is also the June Read with Jenna pick. New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association announces its Book of the Year awards. Judy Blume is presented with the Women’s National Book Association Award. The Anthony Awards nominees are revealed, as are Audiofile’s June 2025 Earphones Award winners. In The Guardian, Ben Okri remembers Kenyan novelist and scholar Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who has died at the age of 87.

Nam Le’s 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem wins the New South Wales Book of the Year Award. Winners of the League of Canadian Poets Prizes are revealed. Dawn Macdonald’s poetry collection Northerny wins the Canadian First Book Prize. Clare Pollard’s The Modern Fairies wins the Tadeusz Bradecki Prize. The shortlist is announced for the Leacock Medal for Canadian humor writing. The Community of Literary Magazines & Presses announces the finalists for the Firecracker Awards. NYT, Vulture, and CrimeReads preview titles coming out this summer. LJ offers beach reads. Plus, new title bestsellers and interviews with Madeleine Thien, Alison Bechdel, and Naomi Xu Elegant.

Heart Lamp: Selected Stories by Banu Mushtaq wins the International Booker Prize, marking the first time a story collection has won the award. Sasha Vasilyuk wins the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for her debut novel, Your Presence Is Mandatory. The Society of Authors’ Awards shortlists are announced, along with the Romantic Novel of the Year Awards winners. Several major newspapers recently published an AI-generated summer reading list featuring fake titles. LibraryReads and LJ offer read-alikes for top holds title Nightshade by Michael Connelly. Plus, Quentin Tarantino will release books on three of his films.