Here’s what’s happening this week in the book industry:

BookExpo and the New York Rights Fair have announced that beginning in 2019, the two book trade events will run concurrently and both will be located at the Javits Convention Center; BookCon will still take place directly after BookExpo. In 2019, BookExpo and the New York Rights Fair will run from May 29 to May 31.

Abrams has bought the Overlook Press [5], which was founded in 1971 by Alfred Mayer and his son Peter Mayer, who died in May. Overlook specializes in out-of-print fiction and nonfiction titles and publishes 40 new titles a year. Going forward, Abrams will handle Overlook’s publishing, marketing, and business operations and will handle sales and distribution once any existing contracts expire.

Kerry McCluggage has been named CEO [6] of IDW Media Holdings. IDW founder and CEO Ted Adams is stepping down to take a more creative role at the company. McCluggage is the former chairman of the Paramount Television Group and president of Universal Television. In 2017, he became a member of IDW’s Board of Directors.

Jennifer Crewe, associate provost and director at Columbia University Press, stepped into the presidency [7] of the Association of University Presses on June 19, the association reported; she succeeds Nicole Mitchell of University of Washington Press. Crewe has also announced her initiatives for the 2018–2019 term: to establish a Statistics Review Task Force and a Gender, Equity, and Cultures of Respect Task Force, and to transition the current Diversity & Inclusion Task Force, established by Mitchell, into a formal committee.

Heather Duncan, executive director of the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association (MPIBA), has announced the hiring of two new staff members [8]: Jeremy Ellis will be MPIBA’s new marketing and communications manager, while Kelsey Myers will be MPIBA’s new operations manager. Current MPIBA operations manager and graphic designer Kathy Keel will leave the association this fall.

The Leading Edge Review, a publication promoting mind, body, and spirit titles to retailers and consumers, is transitioning to digital distribution and is now offering Leading Edge Express, a custom e-blast service [9] for advertisers. 

The PBS NewsHour-New York Times Now Read This book club’s August selection is What it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky [10] (Riverhead), the 2017 story collection by Lesley Nneka Arimah. The book is also the winner of the 2017 Kirkus Prize and the NYPL’s Young Lions Fiction Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Leonard Prize.

The New York Public Library has announced its five 2018 Library Lions honorees [11]: filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, opera singer Jessye Norman, and writers Ron Chernow, Claudia Rankine, and Elizabeth Strout. All were honored for “outstanding achievements in their respective fields of arts, culture, letters, and scholarship.”

The finalists have been announced for [12] the World Fantasy Awards, which highlight works of fantasy published in 2017. The awards will be presented on November 4 during the 2018 World Fantasy Convention in Baltimore. Finalists include Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties (Graywolf), a National Book Award finalist as well as the October 2017 Indie Next List number-one pick [13] and the 2018 Indies Choice Award winner for Adult Debut Book of the Year. [14]

The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English has awarded the 2018 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award for Young Adult Fiction [15] to The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Balzer + Bray). The $5,000 award is presented each year to an author of a YA title “demonstrating a positive approach to life, widespread teen appeal, and literary merit.”

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