Louise Erdrich wins the Pulitzer for fiction (This week in books)

This week! Books!

The 2021 Pulitzer Prizes were announced, and Louise Erdrich won the prestigious prize for fiction! Here are the book-related winners:

• The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (Fiction)
• Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America by Marcia Chatelain (History)
• The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne (Biography)
• Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz (Poetry)
• Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy by David Zucchino (General nonfiction)

Congrats to the winners and finalists.

The House Judiciary Committee introduced legislation that would break up the big 4 of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, which could have ramifications for the book world. As Michael Cader notes in Publishers Lunch (subscription), one bill would likely result in Amazon divesting from their publishing arm, including Audible and Kindle Direct Publishing. Other bills could have an impact on preferential treatment in marketplaces and on pricing.

BookEnds Literary Agency released some really good content this week, including a discussion about what literary agents do all day, how to know whether an agent is reputable, and reasons why a nonfiction book proposal might have been rejected.

Over at Jane Friedman’s blog, Matt Holmes has a deep dive on how authors can use Facebook ads to sell books.

And I really enjoyed this essay by Tim Marcin about how a year plus of the pandemic has changed our ideas about ambition.

This week in bestsellers

Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):

Adult print and e-book fiction:

1. The President’s Daughter by Bill Clinton and James Patterson
2. Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand
3. Tom Clancy: Target Acquired by Don Bentley
4. The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
5. Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. Killing the Mob by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
2. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
3. What Happened to You? by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey
4. How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
5. Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

Young adult hardcover:

1. One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
2. Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
3. Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard
4. Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo
5. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Middle grade hardcover:

1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
2. Refugee by Alan Gratz
3. Stamped (For Kids) by Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi and Sonja Cherry-Paul
4. The Game Master: Summer Schooled by Matt and Rebecca Zamolo
5. The Ickabog by J.K. Rowling

This week on the blog

In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:

• Writers are storytellers, not theme-tellers
• Can you spot the head jumping? (page critique)

Don’t forget that you can nominate your first page and query for a free critique on the blog:

• Nominate Your First Page for a Critique on the Blog
• Nominate Your Query for a Critique on the Blog

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

• Follow me on Twitter
• Follow my page on Facebook
• Join the Facebook Group
• Check out the Bransforums

And finally, as a child of the ’80s, I really enjoyed Meghan Garber’s look back at Top Gun, that artful and strange infomercial for the United States, which recently turned 35 years old.

Have a great weekend!

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