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Colson Whitehead's novel The Nickel Boys was among the 2020 Pulitzer Prize winners, each of whom receives $15,000. He previously won the 2017 Pulitzer for The Underground Railroad. This year's book category winners and finalists, which were announced yesterday, include:

Fiction: The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday), "a spare and devastating exploration of abuse at a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida that is ultimately a powerful tale of human perseverance, dignity and redemption." Also nominated in this category were The Topeka School by Ben Lerner (FSG) and The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (HarperCollins).

General Nonfiction (two winners): The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer and Care by Anne Boyer (FSG), "an elegant and unforgettable narrative about the brutality of illness and the capitalism of cancer care in America"; and The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books, moved by the board from the History category), "a sweeping and beautifully written book that probes the American myth of boundless expansion and provides a compelling context for thinking about the current political moment." Also nominated in this category were Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life by Louise Aronson (Bloomsbury) and Solitary: Unbroken by Four Decades in Solitary Confinement. My Story of Transformation and Hope by Albert Woodfox with Leslie George (Grove Press).

History: Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America by W. Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press), "a masterfully researched meditation on reparations based on the remarkable story of a 19th century woman who survived kidnapping and re-enslavement to sue her captor." Also nominated in this category were The End of the Myth (General Nonfiction category co-winner) and Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (The University of North Carolina Press).

Biography or Autobiography: Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser (Ecco), "an authoritatively constructed work told with pathos and grace, that captures the writer's genius and humanity alongside her addictions, sexual ambiguities and volatile enthusiasms." Also nominated in this category were Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me by the late Deirdre Bair (Doubleday/Nan A. Talese) and Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century by George Packer (Knopf).

Poetry: The Tradition by Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press), "a collection of masterful lyrics that combine delicacy with historical urgency in their loving evocation of bodies vulnerable to hostility and violence." Also nominated in this category were Only as the Day Is Long: New and Selected Poems by Dorianne Laux (Norton) and Dunce by Mary Ruefle (Wave Books).

The Booksellers Association's annual conference and the Gardners Trade Show, which had previously been scheduled for September 13-14, have been postponed until November 1-2 due to the Covid-19 crisis. The BA and Gardners will continue to monitor government guidelines on public gatherings and social distancing over the coming weeks and months.

BA managing director Meryl Halls said: "This has been an incredibly challenging time for all retailers, and booksellers have shown great resilience and creativity in the face of adversity. In these fast-moving times, we hope that moving the BA Conference in November will allow booksellers from across the country to come together to network, share their experiences and celebrate their collective hard work."

Nigel Wyman, head of business development at Gardners, commented: "We have been working closely with the Booksellers Association during this unsettling time to create a realistic time scale for the Gardners Trade Show and the BA conference. We all felt moving it to November was a sensible option bearing in the mind the current climate. We are really looking forward to putting on a great trade show for all the booksellers who attend and giving the publishers the audience they so need right now."

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Last Thursday, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa announced a sector-by-sector plan gradually to lift lockdown measures imposed six weeks ago to combat the coronavirus outbreak. Reuters reported that beginning yesterday, May 4, the three-phase plan opens up "different sectors of the economy every 15 days, starting with small neighborhood shops, hairdressers, car dealerships and bookshops.... If the outbreak continues to slow, the plan's second phase will launch on May 18, opening up bigger stores, restaurants, museums and coffee shops but at reduced capacity."

"We know that as we open up various activities, the risk of transmission will increase," Costa said. "I will never be ashamed to take a step back if necessary for the safety of the Portuguese."

Lisbon's Bookshop Bivar set its phased re-opening to begin today, May 5, noting: "While the easing of commercial restrictions allows us to once again make our books available, the re-opening does present challenges as to how we can do business in the short-term." The bookseller's hygiene and precautions include asking customers to call and reserve a time to browse/pick out books, while drop-in customers "will be asked to wait for a time slot in which there are no other individuals in the store"; and customers must wear a mask at all times (brought from home) while in the shop, though disinfectant gel will be provided.

"We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause, but these are not normal times," Bookshop Bivar wrote. "Also, we will be monitoring ongoing DSG guidelines and will adjust as restrictions are eased. Thank you in advance for your patronage, we look forward to meeting your reading needs. Good Health & Stay Safe."

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Under Alert Level 4, which began last Friday in South Africa, "stationery and educational books" are among the new items that may be sold as the country's Covid-19 lockdown is relaxed a bit. Business Insider SA cautioned, however, that the "wording was not broadened to include all books, despite determined lobbying, including efforts to have books declared vital enough that their sale would be permitted even if SA moves back to Level 5." Nonetheless, some stores have vowed to sell everything that was on their shelves before the initial hard lockdown, while others say the vast majority of their books will be on sale.

Exclusive Books is opening all its stores in the country, excluding those at airports. CEO Grattan Kirk said 36 outlets will open, with shelves about 80% full. "We are of the view, and have confirmed with all parties including the SA Booksellers Association and publishers, that books are, in terms of the definition of 'stationery and educational books,' in fact educational in nature," he said, adding that some non-book items will be removed, but as branches work through their books to see which are not educational, they will "probably err towards argument that every book irrespective of what it is" could be educational.

Mervyn Sloman, owner of the Book Lounge in Cape Town, said his shop will sell all book categories: "There isn't a recognized category within the trade of something called 'educational books'.... Fiction builds empathy. If I read a book written by somebody featuring characters completely different to me, with different life experiences, that enables me to understand a little bit of that context in which people are living. It enables me to build empathy for people other than myself." He does not expect problems with the authorities. "I am not preparing for confrontation with the police," he said. "We're not expecting trouble. We're not breaking the law."

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The Dutch government opted for what it called an "intelligent lockdown" to curb the coronavirus pandemic, advising people to stay home and to keep 1.5 meters (five feet) of social distance, The International Business Times reported.

"I think it would be very difficult to stay at home all day. I'm very happy with the opportunities we have, even if they are limited," said Marijn de Koeijer, owner of Boekhandel Douwes, a few minutes walk from the central railway station in the Hague, seat of the Dutch government.

He noted the government won the "support of the population" with its measures as they are "easier to defend and explain to the people," adding that business is now about half of normal volume, compared to 70%-80% down at the start of the novel coronavirus crisis. "Every book we sell counts," he said.

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In Rwanda, "proprietors of bookshops are offering convenient options during this lockdown period for people to find mental sanctuary," Taarifa reported. Mutesi Gasana, managing director of Arise Bookshop, delivers books to homes for adults and children. The store's online platform allows parents to place textbook orders for their children, and the bookseller focuses on readers in the capital Kigali as well as the countryside.

"Bookstores in Rwanda are not so many, but even those that are available are located in Kigali, yet books should be accessed like groceries because of our belief in the power of books, we have been looking for solutions to make books available and accessible with low costs... this is the solution," she said. "Arise education has always looked for solutions that enhance reading promotion and creating book accessibility.... We are at their services, plus multitudes of readers, novels and motivational. In this time of stay at home, people need books, we deliver at their homes. We are playing our humble part. I hope people will continue embracing our noble service.

Liz Newstat, manager at Chevalier's Books in Los Angeles, Calif., reported that every weekday, and some Saturdays, a bookseller comes in from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to process orders over the phone, via e-mail or through the store's website. Then, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., that bookseller delivers books ordered from Chevalier's in-store inventory to customers in neighboring ZIP codes. Newstat and her colleagues are also offering store-branded merchandise, as well as memberships and gift cards.

Newstat said two booksellers come in during the week, with another two or three booksellers working from home, depending on the amount of work. She's hopeful that everyone can start again in the relatively near future, government mandates permitting. Chevalier's has applied for and received a PPP loan, but Newstat noted that her colleague in charge of the application said there were a bunch of roadblocks and sudden rule changes she had to deal with.

The store has just begun hosting virtual events. Last week, it hosted the first online meeting of freelance writer and editor Kelcie Des Jardin's monthly fiction book club, and they plan to host online author events in the future.

Newstat said the silver lining amid all this has been the store's "loyal and extraordinary customers," who are doing their best to keep Chevalier's afloat with orders while also sending encouraging messages. Added Newstat: "We are beyond grateful."

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Last week, Next Chapter Booksellers in St. Paul, Minn., hosted its first online event, an hour-long session on Zoom called "Ask a Bookseller." Around six people participated, with store manager David Enyeart leading the discussion and recommending titles.

The event went well, and Enyeart noted that while the store had taken part in some online events prior, this was the first in which they had any direct technical involvement. There were no technical issues, Enyeart reported, and hosting was "pretty easy overall." All told, the event probably took about three hours of bookseller time, including preparation and a little follow-up work.

In addition to the customers who participated, a few booksellers showed up as well, which Enyeart said ended up coming in handy. Many of the participants asked for recommendations for YA titles, which is not Enyeart's best genre.

Looking ahead, Enyeart plans to make a few changes. He'll add a little more structure by focusing on a specific genre or category of book, and will likely schedule the event for a half hour instead of a full 60 minutes. When it came to advertising the first event, Enyeart started as early as possible, which is what he's used to doing for in-store events, but it's been "kind of unclear if it's good to promote in advance or closer to last minute." Some attendees who registered early had difficulty finding the e-mail with the Zoom link, and Enyeart is considering advertising the next event closer to the start time.

The day after the event, Enyeart added, the store sold 10 books that were discussed during the Zoom session. "One or two might be coincidence," he said, "but clearly the event moved a few books."

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Russell Atwood, proprietor of Blue Umbrella Books, Westfield Mass., reported that on March 27, when the state banned nonessential businesses, the bookstore set up a free book rack on the front stoop, since the public library had closed a week earlier.

"We are daily restocking with classics and contemporary books for kids and adults, and while the ban continues we've put hundreds of books into the hands of people whose jobs are on hold right now," he said. "We also make a point of updating our front windows so even when driving by you can get something from our bookstore. We are hoping to get the okay to open in May. But we will wait to see how soon places like Barnes & Noble open, and probably recon to see what precautions other people are putting in place to make their customers feel welcome and secure."

Yale University Press has launched Yale Press Audio to expand the number of the publisher's titles available in audiobook format. The program will initially feature one to four audiobooks per year, and plans call for it to grow substantially from there.

Yale Press Audio began with two audiobooks, narrated by the authors and released simultaneously with the print hardcover editions: Stephen Batchelor's The Art of Solitude and Liel Leibovitz's Stan Lee: A Life in Comics.

"We are pleased to serve our authors and their readers with our new audiobook program, expanding the reach of their remarkable books," said Press director John Donatich.   

Joy Harjo (photo: Shawn Miller/Library of Congress)

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has appointed Joy Harjo to serve a second term as the nation's 23rd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2020-2021. During her second term, Harjo will launch a new Library of Congress collection and online map featuring Native poets and poetry.

"Joy Harjo is such an inspiring and engaging poet laureate," Hayden said. "I'm thrilled she said yes to a second term to help the Library showcase Native poets from coast-to-coast. Her profound musical and literary talents are a gift to the nation."

Harjo's second term will begin September 1 and will focus on her signature laureate project, "Living Nations, Living Words: A Map of First Peoples Poetry." This digital project, developed in conjunction with the Library's Geography and Map Division, will be created using ARCGIS StoryMaps, a web mapping application geared toward storytelling, to showcase contemporary Native American poets from across the country.

The project will include Native poets' biographies and recordings of them reading and discussing one of their poems. It will also help build a new collection in the Library's American Folklife Center featuring the recordings of the Native poets.

"It is an honor to serve a second term as poet laureate, especially during these times of earth transformation and cultural change," Harjo said. "Poetry reminds us that we are connected beyond words, and to communicate through poetry has the potential to expand the conversation into wordless depths, to help us move collectively into fresh cultural vision. To get there in understanding, we begin with the roots. In this country, the roots are found in the poetry of the more than 500 living indigenous nations."

During the coronavirus pandemic, Harjo's work was recently featured in The Poetry of Home, a new video series from the Washington Post and the Library featuring four U.S. poets laureate on the theme of "home" at a time when so many people are sheltering in place.

Last month, Simon & Schuster published Marisa Kanter's debut novel, What I Like About You, a YA rom-com featuring a teen book blogger and a complicated love triangle. With her book hitting stores while the majority of the country was under some form of stay-at-home order, Kanter's promotion plans had to pivot drastically.

Kanter, who is a sales coordinator for Ingram Content Group by day, said the novel asks the question of whether it's still a love triangle if there are only two people involved. The main character, who blogs about YA books under a pseudonym, moves to a new town in her senior year. There, she runs into a close friend she's interacted with only online, and while she knows it's him, she chooses not to reveal her online identity. As the year goes on, she develops feelings for him in real life while he falls for her online persona.

"She thinks, everything will be fine," Kanter said. "Everything is not fine!"

Before the coronavirus pandemic brought normal life to a halt, Kanter had a book launch planned at Books of Wonder in New York City, and she was going to fly out to Los Angeles for YALLWEST, the annual YA book festival hosted in Santa Monica and founded by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz.

While it was disappointing when all of those in-person events were canceled, Kanter said, she's nevertheless had a lot of exciting opportunities to promote the book online. She was able to do a live, virtual version of her launch party on Books of Wonder's Instagram account, and she participated in YALLSTAYHOME, the virtual version of YALLWEST. Looking ahead, she'll be doing some online book talks in partnership with libraries, and "things keep popping up" as the weeks go on.

"I wasn't expecting to have to get used to presenting myself on video so quickly," remarked Kanter. "I was worried about being in front of people in person. The more I do it, the more natural it's becoming."

Kanter added that there are both postives and negatives to these online events. Although they lack the in-person connection of being in front of an audience, as well as the energy that that connection brings, they do allow people from all over the country to attend her events. Teens are "all over social media," and now she can connect with them online more easily than before. There have been some strange things to get used to as well, like the Instagram "heart" reaction replacing audience applause.

Kanter said she began writing as a teenager. She was always a big reader and lover of YA, and started writing stories of her own for fun. Some of her major influences were Sarah Dessen, Meg Cabot and Becky Albertalli. She started working on What I Like About You in 2017.

Kanter has a second book coming out next summer, which will be another YA rom-com. Creating during the pandemic, she said, "has been a time." She joked that when she sends her next revision to her editor, she might add a warning that you can clearly see what was written pre-pandemic vs. during the pandemic. "All the characters suddenly start standing six feet apart," she added, laughing. --Alex Mutter

Deftly blending the annual celebration of all things Star Wars with professional social distancing, Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, Calif., posted on Facebook: "MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU! We stand ready (socially distanced, of course) to fill your book orders and send them throughout the known galaxies."

An Unlikely Story Bookstore and Café, Plainville, Mass., will host an online auction from this Friday, May 8, to Friday, May 15, to raise funds for the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc), with 100% of the money from the auction items being donated to Binc. The bookseller noted that because of Covid-19, Binc has received an unprecedented number of requests for aid.

Called An Unlikely Auction, the auction will feature signed books, original artwork, bookish accessories, T-shirts, virtual visits from authors and illustrators, being a named character in future novels by Chris Bohjalian and Hank Phillippi Ryan and more. Tangible auction items will be shipped only in the U.S. and at no charge to the winning bidder.

To celebrate the graduating class of 2020, the Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library and Seven Stories Press are co-hosting a series of live graduation events on Tuesdays in May, starting this evening at 7 p.m. Eastern. Each virtual grad party will feature a roundtable reading of one of the many commencement speeches Kurt Vonnegut delivered during his lifetime that are collected in the third, expanded edition of If This Isn't Nice, What Is?, edited by Dan Wakefield, published this spring for the first time in paperback.

Tonight's event features author Jacqueline Woodson (winner yesterday of the Hans Christian Andersen Author Award; see item below), actor Tony Shalhoub, and comedian Lewis Black along with graduating high school senior Ricco Schuster reading from Vonnegut's commencement address "The Terrible Disease of Loneliness Can Be Cured!" Poet and performance artist Manon Voice and musicians Charlie Ballantine and Amanda Gardier will also perform. Black will read the names of attendees who are graduating seniors during the program.

Next Tuesday, May 12, the live graduation event will feature Russell Banks, David Brancaccio, and the book's editor, Dan Wakefield, among others. Tuesday, May 19, will feature Paul Auster and Kurt Vonnegut's son Mark Vonnegut, and others.

For more information about the graduation events, visit the Vonnegut Library or Seven Stories Press. RSVP here. Tickets and other donations will go to the Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library. A portion of the proceeds from sales of If This Isn't Nice, What Is? during the event will also go to the Vonnegut Library.

At the National Book Foundation:

Anna Dobben has been promoted to associate director, awards.

Dhyana Taylor has been promoted to administration and development coordinator.

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At the St. Martin's Publishing Group:

Marissa Sangiacomo is promoted to assistant marketing director.

Michelle Cashman is promoted to senior marketing manager.

D.J. DeSmyter is promoted to senior marketing manager.

Allison Ziegler is promoted to senior marketing manager.

Meaghan Leahy is promoted to senior marketing operations manager.

Beatrice Jason is promoted to associate marketing manager.  

Stephen Erickson is promoted to assistant marketing manager.
 

Pussweek: A Cat's Guide to Feline Empowerment by Bexy McFly (Chronicle Books).

Today:
Fresh Air: John Moe, author of The Hilarious World of Depression (St. Martin's Press, $27.99, 9781250209283).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Jennifer Weiner, author of Big Summer: A Novel (Atria, $28, 9781501133510).

NPR's 1A: Brad Meltzer, co-author of The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President--and Why It Failed (Flatiron, $29.99, 9781250317476).

Late Night with Seth Meyers: Sarah Kendzior, author of Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America (Flatiron, $27.99, 9781250210715).

HBO has released the teaser trailer for its new drama series Lovecraft Country, based on the 2016 novel by Matt Ruff. Deadline reported that "the series follows Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) as he sets forth with his friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and his Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance). The trio embark on a road trip across Jim Crow America in search of Freeman’s missing father (Michael Kenneth Williams). This begins a struggle to survive and overcome both the racism of 1950s America and unexpected horrors worthy of an H.P. Lovecraft paperback." The series will debut in August.

Showrunner Misha Green executive produces Lovecraft Country with J.J. Abrams, Jordan Peele, Bill Carraro, Yann Demange (who directed Episode 1), Daniel Sackheim (who directed Episodes 2 and 3) and David Knoller (executive producer on Episode 1). The series is produced by afemme, Inc., Bad Robot Productions and Monkeypaw Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.

The winners of the Hans Christian Andersen Award are Jacqueline Woodson of the U.S. as author and Albertine of Switzerland as illustrator. The awards, organized by the International Board on Books for Young People, "recognize lifelong achievement and are given to an author and an illustrator whose complete works have made an important, lasting contribution to children's literature."

IBBY said that Woodson "has a prolific body of writing from picture books to young adult literature, all of which feature lyrical language, powerful characters, and an abiding sense of hope." As illustrator, Albertine "creates books with multiple levels of interpretation, with drawings made with infinite precision that are lively and full of humor." 

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Rachel Taube has won the 2020 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize for her short story "The Gentle Clack of a Fox's Teeth." Final judge Randall Kenan said that the story "feels like a fresh take on the South and confronts a very serious controversial subject with humor and wit and pathos. This writer is wise."

Honorable Mention stories were "Patriotism" by Jason Gray and "The Runaway" by Sarah David.

The Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize is administered by the Great Smokies Writing Program at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

New Yorker staff writer Masha Gessen knows something about autocrats. Winner of the 2017 National Book Award for The Future Is History, a study of post-Soviet Russian totalitarianism, the Moscow-born author hasn't confined their observations to political machinations in their former homeland. Gessen also been a keen student of the political career of Donald Trump. The result is Surviving Autocracy, a blistering appraisal of a man whose presidency "has been not one but a series of actions that change the nature of American government and politics step by step," and that has left profound damage, even chaos, in its wake.

Describing Trump--a self-admitted admirer of political strong men like Vladimir Putin--as "probably the first major party nominee who ran not for president but for autocrat," Gessen explains how Trump's also has been the first presidential administration "focused on destruction." Whether it was "waging a war of militant incompetence against expertise" or appointing cabinet secretaries like Scott Pruitt, whose lifelong goal was to undermine the mission of the agencies they headed, "Trump's project is a government of the worst: a kakistocracy." That is, government by the least suitable leaders.

But as Gessen meticulously documents, Trump's most determined, and most frightening, campaign has been his war on the notion of objective truth, and upon the institutions that unearth and report it. From the beginning, as with Kellyanne Conway's introduction of the notion of "alternative facts" in a discussion of Trump's inaugural crowd size--"defending a liar's right to lie"--Gessen explains how "what's going on" at any moment "consists of actual events on the one hand and what Trump said on the other, and often no bridge exists between the two."

Beyond urging the Democratic Party to put forward "a vision of who we are that is more complicated, offers fewer certainties, but is also more inspiring to more Americans," Gessen's book is relatively short on any political remedies for Trumpism. What's most critical, they argue, is a reinvigorated journalism. Only by "rebuilding a sense of shared reality," in which journalists "create a communications sphere in which people feel not like spectators to a disaster that defies understanding but like participants in creating a common future with their fellow citizens," can there be any hope of recovery from the Trumpian disease.

On November 9, 2016, the day after Trump's election, Gessen wrote, "Institutions will not save you," a chilling, prescient warning of the coming onslaught on American norms and values. As the U.S. approaches another presidential election, one that will be shadowed by an uncertain recovery from a global pandemic, the manifest flaws in Trump's character and the danger his continued governance poses have been laid bare thanks to Gessen and other fearless journalists. Surviving Autocracy isn't merely important reading for anyone who plans to cast a vote in that election, it's essential. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: A noted journalist presents a trenchant analysis of the damage the Trump presidency has inflicted on American democracy.