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Here are the stories Today in Books readers were most interested in this week. Settle into your Sunday and catch up!
The 2024 Nebula Awards Winners
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) announced the winners of the 2024 Nebula Awards, recognizing outstanding science fiction and fantasy, at the Nebula Awards Conference over the weekend. The winners include: Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell (Novel), The Dragonfly Gambit by A.D. Sui (Novella), “Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being” by A.W. Prihandita (Novelette), “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” by Isabel J. Kim (Short Story). Self-published works really are taking off–Vanessa Ricci-Thode’s self-published novel, The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts, won the Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction. In a category that is not wanting for options, that’s no small thing! The Nebulas are voted on and presented by full, senior, and associate SFWA members. You can find the full list of winners here.
TIME’s Best Books of the Year So Far
TIME published their list of the Best Books of the Year So Far and it’s a good mix of books considering they kept it to a mere 14 titles (how though?!). Katie Kitamura’s Audition seems to be required for any Best of So Far as does Ocean Vuong’s The Emperor of Gladness. Also, big kudos to my former PDX writing group peer Emma Pattee whose propulsive debut Tilt made the list! One of the books (I won’t say which just yet) is on my own best of so far, and a whole bunch more were on my list of anticipated reads for 2025. You can find the full list of titles here.
Lawsuit Returns Banned Books to This School District’s Shelves
The St. Francis school district is returning banned books to shelves after a lawsuit filed by Education Minnesota-St. Francis and the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota was settled. The school district banned books, including The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, after replacing librarians and teachers from the book approval process with the now-defunct Book Looks book rating site run by conservative group Moms for Liberty. The “logic” used to make that decision is beyond me and, apparently, didn’t hold up to scrutiny because the school board’s new book policy includes input from teachers, librarians, and student reps. Education Minnesota-St. Francis President Ryan Fiereck said of the journey to achieving the settlement, “The students’ stories and commitment to fixing this terrible policy were particularly inspiring,” while St. Francis Area School Board Chair Nathan Burr made a statement devoid of accountability for the school board’s actions.
New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center Turns 100
Happy 100th to NYPL’s Schomburg Center! The Schomburg holds “one of the world’s leading collections of material relating to the African diaspora,” as well as Langston Hughes’ ashes. Jennifer Schuessler of The New York Times wrote about the event kicking off a year of celebrating the Schomburg and the opening of the Division of Negro Literature, History and Prints, including this weekend’s Schomburg Centennial Festival, which features a day of literary and cultural events. There are so many interesting facts and ties to literary greats in this profile, including that Passing author Nella Larsen was a librarian there. Learn more about the celebration and, hey, Rioter Erika Hardison (Fabulize Magazine Presents: MSAB! Mixtape Vol.1) will be moderating a “Black Utopias” panel for the Centennial Festival, featuring Cebo Campbell (Sky Full of Elephants), Andrea Hairston (Archangels of Funk), Clarence A. Haynes (The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery), and Isis Asare (Afrofuturism Short Stories) on June 14. Check it out!
This Year’s Shirley Jackson Awards Nominees Are Here!
We’ve got nominees for the award recognizing outstanding works of horror, psychological suspense, and dark fantasy. The 2024 list of finalists includes Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror edited by Sofia Ajram (Edited Anthology), The Bone Picker: Native Stories, Alternate Histories by Devon A. Mihesuah (Single-Author Collection), and The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim (Novel). Find the full list here.
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