Long Game

The rollout of the National Book Award longlists is continuing apace, with the announcement of the nominees for Poetry and Translated Literature. Progressive publisher Melville House has received a cash infusion from Illuminating Media owner David Kelsey, who will become 50-50 partners with the press’s founders, despite their divergent political leanings. And publishing veteran Ann Dye is departing HarperCollins to join Hachette Book Group in the newly created role of VP of business development. In other news, Simon & Schuster CEO Greg Greeley and Random House Publishing Group president Sanyu Dillon are among the speakers to be featured at New York University’s Advanced Publishing Institute, a professional development intensive held January 6–7. A federal judge has ruled that Kurt Vonnegut’s heirs can proceed with a First Amendment challenge to Utah’s book banning law, which has targeted Slaughterhouse Five, among other titles, per Courthouse News. In the U.K., the publishing industry and Substack are becoming increasingly entwined, as more authors land traditional book deals through the platform or use it to serialize longform work, the Bookseller reports. Singapore is launching a system to pay citizens for reading books, hoping to incentivize reading, according to the Guardian. 404 Media talks with Library Futures executive director Jennie Rose Halperin about defending public libraries from censorship and other threats. And literary agent Mary Evans has died at 74.