In June, Knopf will publish Wayward, the new novel by Dana Spiotta, author of Eat the Document and Innocents and Others. According to the publisher, Wayward is “about aging, about the female body, and about female difficulty—female complexity—in the age of Trump. Probing and provocative, brainy and sensual, it is a testament to our weird, off-kilter America, to reforms and resistance and utopian wishes, and to the beauty of ruins. Tremendous new work from one of the most gifted writers of her generation.”
Americanah author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks with The Guardian about Trump (“If you look at the history of America, it is not that surprising that Trump is so popular”) and about her joy at the Biden victory: “I was almost close to tears because I thought this is really about people who just want decency back. I feel it is really not ideological, it is more about wanting something human and humane. I find it so moving.”
Wojnarowicz, a new documentary about artist and author (Close to the Knives) David Wojnarowicz, is now streaming.
Author Nicholas Lemann reflects on his experiences as one of the publishers behind Columbia Global Reports, and on the publisher-writer relationship. “Publishers publish. Writers write. And publishers need writers to be their partners in publishing, too.”
Tonight at 8 PM EST, the Strand Bookstore will livestream the 2020 Alice Award, which honors a “richly illustrated book that makes a valuable contribution to its field and demonstrates high standards of production.” This year’s winner is Infinite Cities: A Trilogy of Atlases—San Francisco, New Orleans, New York, by Rebecca Solnit, Joshua Jelly-Shapiro, and Rebecca Snedeker.