Short news items from the world of book publishing:
12/04/2025
ALA Names Mychal Threets Honorary Ambassador for National Library Week 2026
From April 19–25, the ‘Reading Rainbow’ host and PBS Kids resident librarian will preside over National Library Week, celebrating the theme ‘Find Your Joy’12/03/2025
‘Christianity Today’ Announces Book Award Winners
The Christian magazine has selected The Reason for Church by Brad Edwards as its 2025 Book of the Year, while Robert S. Smith’s The Body God Gives received this year’s Award of Merit.12/03/2025
Jennifer Bergstrom Promoted to EVP of S&S
In addition to her new role, Bergstrom will continue leading the Gallery Publishing Group. She originally joined the publisher in 1998 as editorial director of Simon Spotlight, later transitioning over to the adult division in 2004.12/02/2025
P.S. Literary Launches Writers Scholarship
In celebration of its 20th anniversary, the agency has launched its Emerging Writers Scholarship, which offers $1,000 and one-on-one mentorship to support unpublished and underrepresented writers. The inaugural recipient will be named next summer.12/02/2025
Andrea Brown Alums Launch Boutique Agency
Jemiscoe Chambers-Black (bottom), Paige Terlip (top), and Jennifer March Soloway have founded Starling Literary + Media, dedicated to both children’s and adult authors and illustrators. The trio previously worked at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency.12/02/2025
Haymarket Launches Book Not Bars Fundraiser
As part of its annual effort to send free books to incarcerated readers, the Chicago-based progressive publisher aims to raise $20,000 to cover the production and shipping costs of 2,000 titles from its catalog.12/02/2025
Elianna Kan to Join MMQA as Literary Agent
Kan comes to the literary agency from Regal Hoffman & Associates, which she initially joined to build a Spanish-language literary list. At Massie McQuilkin & Altman, she will focus on “voice-driven literary fiction and select nonfiction.”12/01/2025
P&W to Offer Literary Event Grants
Poets & Writers’ mini-grants will provide organizers with funds to pay writers who give readings, conduct writing workshops, or host literary events in New York from January 1–March 31, 2026. Applications for the grants are open through December 8.12/01/2025
Poetry Foundation to Discontinue Programs
The foundation has announced that it will phase out programming in 2026, instead redirecting resources to “support the broader poetry ecosystem” and “strengthen the field of poetry through philanthropy,” per a statement.12/01/2025
PublisHer, Shimmr Partner on AI Training
The advocacy organization for women in publishing, led by Bodour Al Qasimi, has teamed with the U.K.-based AI advertising platform to offer AI education to women-led publishing businesses around the world.11/26/2025
Coalition Protests Tennessee’s Directive to Public Libraries
Literary organizations, publishers, libraries, and right to read advocates have cosigned a letter of concern to Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett, who recently directed 211 public libraries to review their youth materials for “age-appropriateness.”11/25/2025
Powell’s Names New CEO
David Maquera has taken the helm of Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore., succeeding Patrick Bassett. Maquera’s hire follows dozens of layoffs at the bookstore earlier this year.11/25/2025
B&N Brings Back Black Friday Signed Editions
The bookstore chain will release an assortment of autographed books, including titles by Margaret Atwood, Percival Everett, and Matthew McConaughey, starting on November 28. Barnes & Noble will also offer special deals in-store and online.11/24/2025
BISG Opens Board Nominations
The Book Industry Study Group is considering nominations for four two-year terms across four of its six member categories, including its publisher, distributor, retailer, and library seats. The two-year terms will start on July 1, 2026.11/24/2025
Bridgett A. Green Takes the Helm at WJK
Westminster John Knox Press has appointed Green, who has been VP of publishing and editorial director since 2022, as the next president and publisher at the nearly 200-year-old Christian house. She succeeds David Dobson, who retired earlier this year.11/24/2025
HBG Taps Mary Beth Thomas to Head Indie Sales
The former HarperCollins independent retail sales director, who left in 2024 amid a shakeup following the appointment of Ed Spade as sales president, will start her new role at Hachette Book Group on December 1.11/21/2025
Federal Court Delivers Judgment to Prevent Dismantling of IMLS
Attorneys general for 21 states sued to prevent the federal government from gutting the Institute of Museum and Library Services and other agencies, and on November 21, Judge John J. McConnell Jr. upheld an earlier preliminary injunction.11/21/2025
Distribution Deals for the Week of November 24, 2025
Publishers Group West has renewed its distribution partnership with Europa Editions, and Portland-based fulfillment and publishing services company Crwn Studios has launched a distribution program.11/20/2025
Blair Revives ‘New Stories From the South’
The annual short story anthology, originally published by Algonquin from 1986 through 2010, will collect works of fiction by Southern writers or about the Southern U.S. North Carolina small press Blair will bring the anthology back starting in fall 2026.11/20/2025
BISG Proposes Changes to BISAC Subject Codes
The Book Industry Study Group’s Subject Codes committee has prepared a summary of several suggested changes, which the organization invites its members to review before submitting the proposal for ratification on December 1.11/20/2025
Poetry Foundation Announces $1.3 Million in Fall Grants
The foundation has awarded 52 nonprofit poetry-based organizations, publications, presses, and literary arts service organizations a total of $1,345,000 in general operating support grants in the fall 2025 cycle.11/19/2025
WH Smith Chief Exec Quits
Carl Cowling has resigned as head of the travel company, and one-time owner of a chain of bookstores, following an investigation into the massive overstatement of profits in the North American division.11/19/2025
ULC Releases 2025 Library Insights Report
Using the results of its annual Library Insights Survey, the Urban Libraries Council found that library visits, room reservations, and e-resource use are up; physical circulation is stable; and staffing and budgets are trending down.11/18/2025
Binc Launches Largest Ever Matching Gift Campaign
For its end-of-year Stand with Book and Comic Stores campaign, Binc—in partnership with PRH, HarperCollins, Libro.fm, and AdventureKEEN—will match all gifts up to a total of $30,000, with the goal of raising $200,000 by the end of the year.11/18/2025
Sharjah International Book Fair Drew 1.4 Million Visitors
This year’s show saw 1,400,730 visitors from 206 countries during its 12-day run. In all, 2,350 publishers from 118 countries participated.11/17/2025
Chicago’s Volumes BookCafe to Close
Citing competition from a Barnes & Noble outlet that opened two blocks away last fall, Volumes BookCafe in Chicago announced that it will shutter in January.11/17/2025
PKPR Launches Nonfiction PR Division
The PR agency’s new division for nonfiction authors will be helmed by PKPR partner and author Helena Dea Bala (l.), who will be joined by former HBG publicity assistant Alyssa Cuevas.11/17/2025
Gasch Printing Adds Warehousing, Fulfillment Options
Digital book printer Gasch Printing has added book warehousing and order fulfillment to its suite of publishing services.11/14/2025
Congress Appropriates LoC FY26 Funding, Has Yet to Act on IMLS
In the Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill for FY26, passed on November 12, total Library of Congress funding remained at $852.2 million, equivalent to FY25 appropriations.11/14/2025
Travis Kurowski to Head AWP’s Board of Directors
Kurowski, who has served on AWP’s board since 2022, is slated to succeed January Gill O’Neil as board chair following a vote during the quarterly board meeting earlier this month.11/14/2025
Azuki Manga Rebrands as ‘Omoi’
The digital manga publisher and platform is relaunching today under the new name ahead of its plans to expand its catalog in 2026.11/14/2025
AG to Honor Everett, Hayden, Tan
Authors Percival Everett and Amy Tan and former librarian of Congress Carla Hayden will receive awards for their contributions to the literary community at the Authors Guild Foundation’s annual gala, to be held April 20 in New York City.11/14/2025
CALIBA Introduces ‘Certified Indie’ Branding
The California Independent Booksellers Alliance has released a digital Certified Independent Bookstore logo. The organization has also made changes to its annual Golden Poppy Award process.11/13/2025
Graywolf, Poetry Foundation Team on New Book Award
The Pegasus Poetry Book Prize will recognize poets 40 and older with a $10,000 prize and publication for their first or second book. The inaugural winner will be named next fall.11/13/2025
B&N Names ‘Mona’s Eyes’ Its Book of the Year
Thomas Schlesser’s novel, translated by Hildegarde Serle, has been crowned Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year. The book chain also chose Samin Nosrat’s Good Things as its Gift Book of the Year.11/13/2025
Spotify Launches Audiobook Recaps
The streaming platform is rolling out Recaps, an AI-generated feature that provides short audio summaries to help listeners resume their audiobooks after they’ve taken a break.11/12/2025
Ashleigh Gardner Returns to Rakuten Kobo as VP of Self-Publishing, Originals
In her new role at Kobo, where she spent three years before leaving to join Wattpad in 2013, Gardner will focus on identifying new talent and building global author platforms, with an emphasis on the European market.11/12/2025
Amazon Rounds Up Best Books of 2025
Marking its 25th anniversary, this year’s 100-book list is topped by Patrick Ryan’s Buckeye, with Virginia Evans’s The Correspondent and Nina Willner’s The Boys in the Light completing the top three.11/12/2025
St. Martin’s Brings On Sounds True Team
The Macmillan imprint has hired three former staffers of the mind-body-spirit publisher after acquiring its catalogs last month. The new hires include associate publisher Jaime Schwalb, executive editor Sarah Stanton, and associate editor Sahar Al-Nima.11/07/2025
Distribution Deals for the Week of November 3, 2025
Consortium Book Sales & Distribution signs on five new publishers, while Orca Books strikes a deal with Desert Ink Press.11/07/2025
Tamika Barnes, Becky Calzada Vie to Lead ALA
Barnes (l.), of the Georgia Library Association, and Calzada, of the Texas Library Association, are candidates to become the American Library Association’s 2027–2028 president.11/07/2025
‘n+1’ Reteams with McNally Jackson for Annual Fundraiser
The literary magazine has partnered with the indie bookseller to launch the sixth edition of its annual Bookmatch fundraiser.11/05/2025
CSHL Press Names David Crotty as Executive Director
Crotty, most recently a senior consultant at Clarke & Esposito, will take the helm from John Inglis, who founded the modern-day incarnation of CSHL Press in 1987, on December 1.11/05/2025
Books-A-Million Announces Inaugural Book of the Year
The national book chain has named Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman as the title that “best embodied the joy of reading and the enthusiasm of BAM’s team,” per a statement.11/05/2025
Richard Charkin to Chair Thames & Hudson Board
The publishing veteran, who has held senior executive roles at Macmillan, Bloomsbury, and Oxford University Press, has been named chair of the board of the London-based art book publisher, effective January 1.11/04/2025
Books BC Launches ‘Read Local’ Book Boxes
The Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia’s three book boxes celebrate Canadian indie publishers and authors, covering such topics as Indigeneity, cooking, and eco-consciousness.11/04/2025
OUP to Acquire Karger
Oxford University Press has inked an agreement to purchase Karger Publishers, the Basel, Switzerland-based medical press founded in 1890, with the transaction to be finalized in December.11/03/2025
HBG Launches In-House AAPI Initiative
Hachette Book Group’s AAPI Employee Resource Group will kick off the initiative with a panel including author Min Jin Lee (pictured), chief people officer Carrie Bloxson, and Yu & Me Books owner Lucy Yu, at its New York office on November 12.10/31/2025
BISG Launches ‘Season of Giving’
The Book Industry Study Group’s newest initiative invites its members and the broader publishing community to fund the purchase and donation of 2,000 banned books to offset 1,000 book challenges across the U.S.10/31/2025
Online Sales Rise 10% at Amazon in Q3
While most of the focus on Amazon’s third quarter financial report was on Amazon Web Services and other AI topics, the company did report that online sales in the quarter increased 10% over a year ago to $67.4 billion.News Brief Archive
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