Project Hail Mary is now in theaters 🚀 Revisit our interview with Andy Weir about the novel that started it all—a gripping story of an amnesiac astronaut racing to piece together his past and save humanity.

★ Chrystal D. Giles’s “potent, socially attuned” contemporary middle grade novel LISTEN TO THE GIRLS is a “thoughtful, timely exploration of courage and the power of collective voices”

The National Association of Black Bookstores, which was launched last year, is encouraging book lovers to shop at one (or more) of the nation’s 306 Black-owned bookstores next Tuesday.

Educational materials supplier Follett Content invited public librarians to tour its facility. They met with publishers and received signed copies of Lisa Katzenberger’s book A Love Letter to My Library, illustrated by Rob Sayegh Jr. Pictured: Katzenberger (l.) and Follett CEO Britten Follett (r.).

The romance publisher is partnering with Dashverse, an AI video company based in Bengaluru, India, to adapt 40 of its titles into animated shortform video series, beginning in April with Catherine Mann’s A Fairy-Tail Ending.

See what we published in this week’s print issue of Publishers Weekly, including our Bologna Children’s Book Fair preview and more. » buff.ly/Zcvfb7l

In their new picture book How a Bear Became a Book, Annette Bay Pimentel and Faith Pray pay homage to the collaboration between author A.A. Milne and illustrator E.H. Shepard that resulted in the beloved classic, which is now celebrating a century in print.

★ Adult romance author E. Kennedy makes a “suspenseful” YA debut with THORNBIRD, “a taut, empathetic thriller that probes the long shadow of familial and communal trauma”

Sarai Walker triumphs with this sophisticated thriller centered on true crime writer Violet “West” Shelley. It’s a knockout. @harperbooks.bsky.social

★ Byron Graves’s “memorable and heartfelt” YA novel MEDICINE WHEELS is a “sincere portrait of grief, growth, and finding balance”

Los Angeles County Public Library is spearheading a book club with more than 140 libraries in California, Oregon, and Washington. Events around the inaugural pick, George Takei’s They Called Us Enemy, will take place April 1–June 6.

Simon & Schuster strikes deals with three new publishers and SUNY Press teams with Avicenna.

Coretta Scott King Book Award–winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes and her longtime publisher Little, Brown Books for Young Readers have teamed up to offer a fellowship for aspiring writers from underserved backgrounds.

Arvelo joins the publisher from Macmillan, where he served as VP of data science and analytics for more than a decade. Sourcebooks said his hire reflects its “commitment to integrating data and analytics more deeply across the organization.”

The literary creator economy has long been a bogeyman for traditional publishing. Is the industry’s fear warranted?

At a March 26 ceremony in Manhattan, the National Book Critics Circle presented its annual awards in eight competitive categories. Other winners include Nicholas Boggs, for Baldwin, and Karen Hao, for Empire of AI.

★ DROP DEAD FAMOUS—a “credible, fast-paced” mystery YA debut from Jennifer Pearson—“achieves high marks across the board”

In a case brought against Cox Communications by Sony and other music labels, the Supreme Court’s verdict hinged on whether the company intended for its service to be used for copyright infringement. Publishers might now ask the same questions of AI companies’ large language models.

On March 24, Aimee Nezhukumatathil celebrated the launch of her fifth collection of poetry, Night Owl (Ecco), at Square Books in Oxford, Miss. The event featured cookies, pink lemonade, a Night Owl–themed playlist, a book signing, and an actual owl brought in by local wildlife rescue. (Ecco)

In the week since Hachette canceled the publication of Mia Ballard’s Shy Girl amid allegations about the author’s use of AI, the industry is struggling to openly address the ethical and material questions raised by the incident.

Colson Whitehead concludes his Harlem Trilogy with a transcendent and wildly entertaining novel in which his recurring characters grapple with the ways their lives are defined by crime and the city they call home. It’s the greatest New York novel in years. @doubledaybooks.bsky.social

Following his 2020 foray into middle grade fiction, The Silver Arrow, the novelist returns to the realm of children’s literature with his first picture book, The God of Sleep, illustrated by Huynh Kim Liên.

This year promises to be a big one for the pioneering superhero comics writer, who is making a much-heralded return to both Marvel and his iconic creator-owned series Powers.

The author’s latest, Whistler (Harper, June), centers on Daphne, a middle-aged English teacher; her reunion with Eddie, her former stepfather; and the long shadow cast by a car accident when she was nine. At PLA, Patchett will join children’s author Kate DiCamillo for a lunch with attendees.

Following an infusion of capital, the digital comics platform has appointed Henrik Rydberg to the helm and acquired AI publishing startup Inkr as it looks to make inroads into both English and Japanese comics.

The writer and activist’s An Unexpected Life is slated to publish this September. Random House VP and executive editor Jamia Wilson had acquired world rights to the book from Kim G. Schefler at Levine Plotkin.

Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles rejected an effort to dismiss a First Amendment complaint against five Department of Defense Education Activity schools, which removed 596 library books in response to White House executive orders.

The plan would pay authors and illustrators about half of what they are owed by the children’s publisher over the next five years. The company filed for bankruptcy nearly two years ago and owes unsecured creditors about $2 million.

★ Joy Michael Ellison and illustrator Nabi H. Ali “conjure the spirit of one icon’s contributions” in their “stunning, celebratory” picture book biography, WILLI NINJA: VOGUE LEGEND

A promised “Comic Space” at the fair never quite materialized, but the show floor still had plenty to reveal about the state of graphic storytelling, from buzzy book deals and crowdfunding campaigns to an appearance from Heartstopper author Alice Oseman.

Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books hosted Jamilah Lemieux (c.) at the African American Museum in Philadelphia in celebration of her debut, Black. Single. Mother.: Real Life Tales of Longing and Belonging (Roc Lit 101). Joining Lemieux in conversation were Marc Lamont Hill (l.) and Feminista Jones (r.).

The publisher and entertainment company, founded in 1980 by Nicholas Callaway, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York. Among its largest creditors is its distributor, Hachette, which it owes $1.7 million.

Parent company Bertelsmann attributed the decline, to €704 million, to “growth-related expenses in the U.S. core business along with negative exchange rate effects.” Penguin Random House’s total revenue in the year rose 1.3%, to €5 billion.

Ron Currie’s sterling prequel to The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne unfolds in the final days of a yearlong labor strike at a paper mill in 1980s Waterville, Maine. It’s a winner. @putnambooks.bsky.social

In Mighty Real: A History of LGBTQ Music, 1969–2000 (Viking, May), the journalist traces how queer recording artists have shaped modern music and culture.

The Showgirls star talked with PW about her new memoir (Akashic, out now), which tackles everything from handling Hollywood creeps to maintaining your autonomy in a world intent on taking it from you.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York has awarded a $1,000,000, two-year grant to the Urban Libraries Council, which will establish a network of civic labs for young people to “practice civic skills and lead community change.”

Launched in New York City in 2008 as an educational publishing vendor that provided editorial content and curriculum development services to clients in the school marketplace, Literary Safari has significantly expanded its scope. buff.ly/pcJAgOS

The educational publisher is starting a new imprint, Curiosity Unlocked Books, which will publish high-interest fiction and nonfiction for young readers up to age 12. www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Long a prominent presence on the bookshelves of preteen readers, Blume’s Just as Long as We’re Together and its companion novel, Here’s to You, Rachel Robinson, will soon have a new publisher and fresh covers. The middle grade books will be relaunched by Simon & Schuster’s Atheneum imprint.

★ Deb Caletti’s “intimate” YA romance YOU, ME, AND INFINITY “contains multitudes: come for the movingly voiced, starry-eyed joy, but keep tissues on standby for the gut-wrenching moments in between”

In her first major move since being named CEO of HarperCollins U.S. trade, Liate Stehlik has restructured the sales team into separate divisional sales and channel sales groups to distinguish “internal partnership from customer-facing execution.” www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

On March 23, Poets & Writers hosted its annual gala at Pier Sixty in Manhattan. During the event, author Tommy Orange (l.) presented the Editor’s Award to Jordan Pavlin of Knopf (r.). (Kyo Morishimia)

Formed in late 2024, the Hachette Book Group division scored big last year with mini-kits, sticker books, and illustrated books. Under the direction of Kristin Kiser, the combined group has six publishers, 13 imprints, and publishes more than 500 titles annually.

Translator Daniel Hahn shows how Shakespeare’s intricate wordplay is preserved and transformed into other languages in this lively exploration. This is a pleasure for scholars and hobbyist wordsmiths alike. @aaknopf.bsky.social buff.ly/dYgnYdz

Tibetan activist Tsultrim Dolma makes her debut as author with Defying China, a YA memoir about her experiences growing up under the control of the People’s Republic of China, written with Rebecca Wei Hsieh. buff.ly/QGfqCOJ

With PLA around the corner, EveryLibrary’s democracy projects coordinator is helping raise levels of civic engagement among librarians and lobbying for access to information. buff.ly/yzfS0ec

Bookseller and champion of diverse books Jewell Stoddard, who co-founded one of the first children’s-only independent bookstores in the U.S., Cheshire Cat Children’s Books in Washington, D.C., died March 10. She was 92. www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

For the first installment in his new Edison Bixby thriller series, the bestselling author decided to upend as many genre tropes as possible. buff.ly/RccjeAK

Kids and families can get their hands on STEAM series and activities at Scholastic’s Discovery Fair, a new style of book fair for grades K–6. www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...