Tonya Pineda

Slow Burn Bookshop has opened a bricks-and-mortar store in Nashville, Tenn., following its debut as a pop-up shop, StyleBlueprint reported.

The romance-focused bookstore resides at 604 Gallatin Ave. #208, and opened its doors in January. It carries a wide array of romance titles across many sub-genres, with owner Tonya Pineda putting particular emphasis on diverse authors and independent authors. Pineda's event plans include author signings, trivia nights, yoga classes, and more. Prior to launching Slow Burn, she owned a boudoir photography business for more than 10 years.

"I created Slow Burn with the intention of creating a safe space for people who have never felt comfortable in a traditional bookstore," Pineda told StyleBlueprint. "I hope my fellow weirdo readers feel that when they step into my store."

River City Reading Room will open next Wednesday, April 22, in Peoria, Ill., the Peoria Journal Star reported.

Chuck Levesque

Located at 315 Main St. in downtown Peoria, River City Reading Room will offer mostly new titles with a small selection of used books. Owner Chuck Levesque plans to carry general-interest titles for all ages while highlighting books about Illinois and by Illinois artists. The store will also have a gallery wall featuring the work of local and regional artists.

"I want this to be a real third place," Levesque told the Journal Star. His event plans include author readings, art exhibits, and salons. "It will be a place that's not home and not work, but just a place where people can gather."

Levesque started visiting the Peoria area some 12 years ago and decided to open a bookstore there after retiring from his previous career working for a homeless services organization in Chicago. 

"I decided that I wanted my next venture to address my dual interests of building community and entrepreneur-ism," he explained. "I thought an independent new-book bookstore downtown would be a great fit."

The store is not far from Bradley University, and Levesque plans to offer a 10% discount on book purchases to all Bradley students, faculty, and staff.

Following the April 22 opening, Levesque will host a reception on April 25 for those who helped him open the bookstore.

Yen Press has created a new imprint, Avocado House, devoted to "expanding the reach of international authors in translation," that will be led by publisher and editor-in-chief JuYoun Lee. Yen is best known for publishing manga, manhwa, and light novels, and, through its prose imprint, Yen On, publishes literary fiction, such as the novels The Miracles of the Namiya General Store by Keigo Higashino and Tezcatlipoca by Kiwamu Sato. Avocado House aims to be a home for works that cover a cross-section of interests and genres in fiction and nonfiction. Avocado House will publish some 12 titles a year.

Lee said, "As divisive as the world can seem at times, books have always remained a great unifier--helping us find commonalities across cultures while celebrating our unique differences. Avocado House aims to be a true home for authors, a place where their voices can connect with readers far beyond borders and language barriers. It has been gratifying to see the growing enthusiasm for literature in translation recently, alongside such enormous support from book retailers. We truly could not be more excited to contribute to this movement with the establishment of Avocado House."

Inaugural titles include:

Laplace's Witch by Keigo Higashino, translated by Stephen Paul (October 2026). "Two people die in hot-spring towns in different parts of Japan from hydrogen sulfide poisoning. Investigating the case is geochemist Shusuke Aoe, who witnessed the same mysterious girl, Madoka, at both crime scenes." By award-winning Japanese mystery author Keigo Higashino.

Sickness unto Love by Yuki Shasendo, translated by Michael Blaskowsky (November 2026). "More than 150 deaths across Japan have been connected to Blue Morpho, a game that leads people to take their own lives. The organizer of this terrible 'game' is Kei Yorikawa, a seemingly good- natured high school student. How did a girl like her become such a monster? This story is a look back at the boy who changed her fate--her childhood friend, and her first kill." By Yuki Shasendo, an emerging Japanese mystery writer, the book was made into a live action film by Ryuichi Hiroki, released last October. 

1,000 Words Left to Live by Gyatei Murasaki, translated by Matt Treyvaud (December 2026). "A collection of twenty-six shocking, awe-inducing short stories. A doctor tells a patient they can speak only one thousand words before their life ends. Someone’s boyfriend turns into a can of mackerel. A woman is in her sixth year of pregnancy. This mysterious world is full of laughter and tears, and twists and turns sure to leave anyone reeling!" 1,000 Words Left to Live is a TikTok sensation in Japan by Gyatei Murasaki, a "master of the absurd."

The Curse Called Mother, the Prison Called Daughter by Aya Saito (2027). "On March 10, 2018, a corpse belonging to 58-year-old single mother Taeko Takasaki is found on a riverbank in Shiga Prefecture. Her body is mutilated beyond recognition, with her head, arms, and legs all severed, and investigators quickly home in on her 31-year-old daughter, Akari, as the prime suspect. Details about their relationship slowly come to light, painting a picture of a daughter pushed to the brink by a physically and emotionally abusive mother in desperate need for control, culminating in a horrific crime described by Akari in two simple sentences: 'The monster is dead. Now I am free.'... A story revealed through a judicial reporter's coverage of the tragic incident and extensive letters exchanged with the murdering daughter, The Curse Called Mother, the Prison Called Daughter is a gripping work of nonfiction."

The Place of the Flamingo by Haeyeon Jeong (2027). "Junhoo is just an overworked teacher in a small town. As he watches the lake before him swallow up the body of his lover, he can't help but wonder, how did it come to this? He didn't kill Dahyeon, but he is guilty of another sin: sleeping with a student. And his desperation to hide this career-ending crime has compelled him to cover up a murder. Now, as the prime suspect, how will he ever prove his innocence?" One of the best known works Korean author Haeyeon Jeong.

The Library of Congress has appointed Arthur Sze to a second term as the nation's 25th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, for 2026-2027. Sze, who lives in Santa Fe, N.Mex., was named poet laureate in September 2025 and began working to expand appreciation of poetry through his focus on translating poetry originally written in languages other than English. 

Arthur Sze (photo: Mariana Cook)

His newest book, Transient Worlds: On Translating Poetry, features translations from 13 languages and provides a personal guide to poetry in translation. The book was published yesterday by Copper Canyon Press in association with the Library of Congress.
 
Sze's first term will conclude on April 30, when he will return to the library for a conversation with Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate of the U.K., on the art and process of writing and translating poetry. In his second term, Sze is crafting his signature project, Words Bridging Worlds, and will embark on a U.S. tour to host public events, including readings, moderated discussions, and workshops focused on poetry and translation. Queens College of the City of New York is partnering with Sze to support the tour's workshops through the college's MFA program in creative writing and literary translation.
 
"It has been a great honor to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate from 2025-2026," Sze said, adding that Transient Worlds is "a vehicle to widen and deepen the appreciation of poetry through the lens of poetry in translation; and, for my second term, 2026-2027, I am excited to embark on taking my signature project, Words Bridging Worlds, to multiple cities to celebrate poetry and poetry in translation, and where people can use the book to try translating poems from another language into English."

Acting Librarian of Congress Robert Randolph Newlen commented: "Arthur Sze is opening the world of poetry by giving us a unique view of his process of writing and translating poetry--and challenging students and the public to try writing and translating poetry as well. The Library of Congress is proud to reappoint Arthur Sze, a leading poet of our time, as our nation's 25th U.S. Poet Laureate."

Tim Sandlin, Jackson Hole, Wyo.'s "most prolific author" and founder of the Jackson Hole Writer's Conference, died March 29, the News & Guide reported. He was 75. Lit, published last December, was his 13th book, 11 of which were novels, including four set in the fictional Teton town of GroVont. He also published two collections of columns, and wrote screenplays.

Tim Sandlin

"I wrote five novels about my problems and then I ran out of problems," Sandlin had observed, "so I wrote movies because you don't have to have problems to write movies. After a few years of that I developed all new problems so I went back to novels and that's where I am now."

The News & Guide noted: "While making the valley his home for roughly half a century, Sandlin wrote, mentored aspiring authors and catalyzed the writing community via the Jackson Hole Writers Conference, which he ran for three decades... From his customary perch at the back table of Pearl Street Bagels on Pearl Avenue, Sandlin churned out book after book, painstakingly scratching on yellow legal pads for years. He kept an ear to the room, always on the lookout for material. He absorbed the ski bum-rancher-artist-hippie patois from his main listening post."

When the Center for the Arts opened in 2004, Jackson Hole Writers became one of its first resident organizations, and Sandlin worked shifts at the Center's information desk for 20 years. Marty Camino, executive director of the Center, said, "He could interact with people he knew, but also could sit there and write. He loved Sunday morning shifts. He was a consistent presence. He left a mark on many people in our community."

In his 30s, Sandlin earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. The manuscript he completed there would be published as Sex and Sunsets, "read pretty early on by Larry McMurtry while Sandlin was still a dishwasher at Anthony's. And a career was born," the News & Guide noted. "Without him, I would have no career or life as I have had the last 35 years," Sandlin wrote in a tribute on Facebook when McMurtry died.

Sandlin landed a copy editing job at the Jackson Hole News. Former publisher Michael Sellett recalled: "He was a wonderful addition to the newsroom because of his quirky sense of humor, but he was also serious about his copy editing." Sellett eventually let Sandlin publish a column, "As the Hole Deepens." Some of those columns were later collected in The Pyms: Unauthorized Tales of Jackson Hole. Sellett remembered that the columns featured "a whole cast of characters who offered very cynical but humorous commentary on both local government and local issues in general. They were sometimes quite pointed."

As he continued to publish novels like Western Swing and the GroVont Trilogy (Skipped Parts, Sorrow Floats, and Social Blunders), Sandlin "would make the rounds at Valley Bookstore in Gaslight Alley 'just about every day' to check the shelves and make sure his books, 'hilarious portraits of misfits,' former bookstore employee and poet Matt Daly said, were being properly marketed," the News & Guide wrote.

Regarding Sandlin's final novel, Lit, Brash Books publisher Lee Goldberg said, "It is this strange cross between gentle literary fiction and a cozy mystery. It's hard to position him. He writes comedy, but it's also heartbreaking. He walked a strange line in his writing. I was just so enchanted by the writing and by Tim, I didn't care." 

Goldberg added: "He died being back in the saddle, so to speak. Tim had a sharp eye, a keen understanding of character. He's an author who deserved a much wider audience than he got. He was appreciated more by other authors than by the wider public."

Hostage: A Memoir of Terrorism, Trauma and Resilience (Potomac Books/University of Nebraska Press) recounts author Mimi Nichter's experiences being held prisoner during the 1970 hijacking of TWA Flight 741 from Tel Aviv to New York. Nichter had a book signing party in New York City recently, and, 55 years later, enjoyed a reunion with some of her fellow hostages. Books were sold by P&T Knitwear. Pictured: (from left) Rob Hirsch, Mimi Nichter, Martha Hodes, Barbara Mensch, Nancy Porter.

Here is the March edition of The Poetry Shelf, our suggested poetry assortment, compiled by Michelle Halket of Central Avenue Publishing.

Happy Poetry Month! Many of you might not be celebrating it as much as we are at Central Avenue, but hopefully you have been able to build out some great sections in your store. If you needed any reason to explore the power of poetry--pick up Ada Limón's most recent book, On the Power of Poetry, which came out just this week.

As always, there are lots of new titles on the bestseller list, including:

Night Owl by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
A Suit or a Suitcase by Maggie Smith
Bluff by Danez Smith 

There's lots to celebrate what's coming up in May. It's Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Mental Health Awareness Month. And it's also Mother's Day! For the feature, I've tried to find a smattering of books that broach both of those first topics, but I might note that "motherhood poetry" is very big lately, and there are some really great books out there now and coming up in the next few weeks. If you're looking to build out a Mother's Day table, I'd include:

They Bloom Because of You by Jessica Ulrichs (Mar 3, 2026)
The Size of Your Joy by Elise Powers (April 21, 2026)
How About Now by Kate Baer (Nov 4, 2025)
Nobody Told Me by Hollie McNish (Feb 8, 2022)
Poems of Parenting by Loryn Brantz (Apr 8, 2025)

As always, everything I put on these lists are just suggestions meant to spark ideas of your own. Pick and choose as best fits your store!

"Readers are welcome. Non readers are also welcome because someone has to carry my books." That was the sidewalk chalkboard message in front of Daisy Chain Book Co. in Edmonton, Alb., Canada, which quoted some customer comments they have heard in the bookstore, including:

I love it when my girlfriend comes here. These chairs are so comfortable.

Can I put my wife's pile on the counter? These are heavy.

It's pretty cool that there is stuff for me to look at too, maybe I will read with her one day.

I like hearing her process for deciding what to get. I didn't know she was so interested in these things, kinda makes me want to read more!

"We love it when partners that accompany readers express their appreciation for our store," Daisy Chain added. "Sometimes they look out of place, and notice that 'hey, ya got no screens in here,' or they find interesting things to discuss while their beloved reader takes them to a favorite section."

At Crown:

Heather Faulls has joined Crown as senior marketing manager.

Josie McRoberts has been promoted to associate publicist.

Lindsay Cook has been promoted to associate publicist.

Allyson Coy has been promoted to marketing associate.

Winnie the Pooh: The Graphic Novel by A.A Milne, adapted Kevan Chandler and Joe Sutphin (Ten Speed Young Readers, October 13 pub date).

Today:
Here & Now: Rainbow Rowell, author of Cherry Baby: A Novel (Morrow, $32, 9780063380264).

Tomorrow:
Jennifer Hudson Show: Brandy Norwood, author of Phases: A Memoir (Hanover Square Press, $32.50, 9781335013279).

Sherri Shepherd Show: Teddy Riley, author of Remember the Times: A Memoir (Gallery/13A, $29, 9781668056455).

Patrick Schwarzenegger (White Lotus) will star opposite Phoebe Dynevor in Beach Read, 20th Century Studios' adaptation of the 2020 bestselling novel by Emily Henry, Deadline reported. Yulin Kuang, co-writer of Netflix's People We Meet on Vacation, is directing from her own script, with Neal H. Moritz producing via his Original Films. Karina Rahardja will exec produce. Sarah Shepard and Catherine Hughes are overseeing for 20th. 
 
Beach Read follows January Andrews, "a successful romance novelist who struggles with grief and writer's block after her father's death and the discovery of secrets he's long kept hidden," Deadline wrote. "While spending the summer in his Michigan beach house to prepare it for sale, she unexpectedly reconnects with Gus Everett, an author who was once her rival in college. Both creatively stuck, they agree to a writing challenge over the summer, swapping literary genres while promising that there will be no romance between them."

The winners of the 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Award are Michael Rosen from the U.K. for writing and Cai Gao from China for illustration. 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 works have made an important, lasting contribution to children's literature."

IBBY said that Rosen's body of work "demonstrates an extraordinary ability to speak to children with honesty, humor, intelligence, and respect. His writing reflects the rhythms of children's language and thought, combining playfulness with emotional depth and social awareness. Across poetry, novels, and nonfiction, his work invites children into literature, encourages empathy, and opens space for discussion about history, family, loss, identity, and society. His work shows that literature for children can be playful and profound at the same time. Through his extensive and influential body of work, Michael Rosen has made a lasting and significant contribution to children's literature internationally."

As an illustrator, Cai Gao's work "demonstrates outstanding artistic quality and a unique visual language that expands the possibilities of illustration for children. Her illustrations combine technical mastery with creativity, sensitivity, and innovation. Her work moves between tradition and modernity, creating images that are visually striking, emotionally resonant, and meaningful for young readers. Through her use of color, composition, and visual storytelling, she creates books that invite children to explore, imagine, and interpret the world visually. Her body of work represents a significant and lasting contribution to the art of children's books."

photo: Andria Lo

Rachel Khong is a writer living in Los Angeles. Her debut novel, Goodbye, Vitamin, won the 2017 California Book Award for First Fiction, and was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist for First Fiction. She was executive editor of Lucky Peach magazine and edited a cookbook with them called All About Eggs. In 2018, she founded The Ruby, a work and event space for women and nonbinary writers and artists in San Francisco’s Mission district. Her second novel, Real Americans, was a New York Times bestseller and a Read with Jenna pick. Her story collection, My Dear You (Knopf, April 7, 2026), is about love, life, and the anguish of becoming oneself in a time when it's so easy to be someone else.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

A text message arrives from God. He's had it with humans; you'll spend the rest of your life as an animal. What do you choose?

On your nightstand now:

Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams by Eugene T. Gendlin, Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning by Eugene T. Gendlin, Daybook: The Journal of an Artist by Anne Truitt, Symbolorum: The Secret Wisdom of Emblems by Mandy Aftel, Mysticism by Simon Critchley, The Week of Colors by Elena Garro, and a Kobo bursting with library loans.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Half Magic by Edward Eager. Four siblings--bored during a summer--find a magical coin that grants only half their wish. Math isn't easy (I related to this), so hijinks ensue.

Your top five authors:

This is an impossible question, but here are five favorites: Virginia Woolf, Kazuo Ishiguro, Toni Morrison, Denis Johnson, Susan Choi.

Book you've faked reading:

I'm honest about my ignorance. I haven't read Marcel Proust or Fyodor Dostoyevsky (but plan to!).

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy. Levy is one of my favorite authors, and in this "living autobiography" she writes with beautiful attunement to the textures of her life.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Spirit Worlds, from the Library of Esoterica, by Jessica Hundley. So many incredible and spooky illustrations.

Book you hid from your parents:

The Girl Scout handbook, which included salacious (to me) illustrations of kissing.

Book that changed your life:

The Gift by Lewis Hyde.

Favorite line from a book:

Another impossible question, but here's a quote I turn to often when I'm deep in the not-knowing part of writing: "The passage into mystery always refreshes. If, when we work, we can look once a day upon the face of mystery, then our labor satisfies. We are lightened when our gifts rise from pools we cannot fathom. Then we know they are not a solitary egotism and they are inexhaustible." --The Gift, Lewis Hyde

Five books you'll never part with:

I'll take this opportunity to recommend five excellent books that survived my move and that I plan to take with me if I ever move again: Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne, photographs by Tina Rupp, Bruegel: The Complete Paintings by Jürgen Müller, Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson, Mystics of the Christian Tradition by Steven Fanning, The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante.

Tween stepsisters Kenzie and Quinn, who don't even "remember not being sisters," try to enjoy what they believe is their final summer together in this thoughtful, luminous middle-grade graphic novel.

Midsummer Sisters by Niki Smith (The Golden Hour; illus. of Sea Legs) opens with sharp-cornered, red dialogue balloons of Kenzie's dad and Quinn's mom yelling. The young stepsisters (Quinn red-headed and freckled, Kenzie brown-haired and light-skinned with nevus flammeus on her forehead) huddle together under a blanket. Soon, Kenzie's grandma--who sees both girls as hers--sweeps them away so they can escape the arguing and spend the summer on the Outer Banks in North Carolina. As a duo, the girls fawn over the local wild horses, especially the vulnerable newborn foal. Individually, Kenzie beachcombs, searching for a megalodon tooth (Quinn doesn't get it) and Quinn texts and video chats with Willow, a friend from home who makes her blush. Quinn is upset Willow will be far away once Quinn moves due to the divorce; Kenzie is hurt because she really wants Quinn to pay attention to her. The sisters' time in close quarters magnifies their disparate ways of handling the divorce: "I NEED TO BE MAD," Quinn explains to Kenzie, who Quinn thinks simply "sniffle[s] and hide[s]." Neither of the lifelong sisters wants the inevitable: that with their parents' divorce, they "will just be strangers."

In this gorgeous ode to horse girls and the magic of summer, Smith portrays a nuanced, messy, and beautiful blended family with painful realism. Quinn tearfully laments what she'll lose by moving: "I'll never get to come back home! I'll never see my room again... my teachers... our favorite pizza place." Kenzie, whose mother died when she was young, particularly embodies the unusual circumstances that can surround a blended family's split-up: "I'm not even gonna have a mom anymore." Buffering the sadness is an infectious love between the sisters: not-so-stealthy shut-up kicks under the table, good-natured teasing ("Dingbatter! You are such a tourist"), and laughing fits over Gramma's "absolutely ancient" dog. Smith's loose-lined illustrations and borderless panels depict expressive features and tons of action, showing the girls bonding as they preserve fossils, smash open geodes, and traipse the beach at night to send crabs scurrying. Smith's wild horses seem especially lifelike, manes flowing and gentle eyes gleaming, allowing the reader to find in them the same mesmerizing wonder that the sisters do. Spectacular. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer

Shelf Talker: Two tween stepsisters stay at their grandma's beach house for what may be their last summer together in this marvelous middle-grade graphic novel about sisterly love.