S. Zainab would like to think she bleeds ink but the very idea makes her feel faint. She writes fantasy and horror, and is currently clutching a manuscript while groping in the dark. Find her on Twitter: @szainabwilliams.
Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
2025 Andrew Carnegie Medals Longlists
The 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medals Longlists for Fiction and Nonfiction are out! You might not be surprised to see James by Percival Everett, Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar, Swift River by Essie Chambers, or Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange on the fiction list. The nonfiction list includes There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib, Out of the Sierra: A Story of Rarámuri Resistance by Victoria Blanco, By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle, and it’s cool to see a graphic memoir here–Feeding Ghosts by Tessa Hulls. My list of Big Books of the Year is certainly clarifying as we approach the end of awards season and enter Best Books season. You can find the full longlists here, and the six-title shortlist (three titles for each category) will be announced November 12, 2024.
How a Fan Discovered a New Bram Stoker Story
This real-life scenario reads like the stuff of every book nerd’s dreams. [In the voice of Sophia Petrillo] Picture it: 2023. The National Library of Ireland archives. A man stumbles upon “Gibbet Hill,” a forgotten short story by the author of Dracula. Brian Cleary, the clinical pharmacist who found the tale in an 1890 issue of Dublin Daily Express, is a big Bram Stoker fan. How did he resist the urge to run around the library screaming about his find? Said Cleary, “there were proper researchers and academics there, and I was just an amateur.” I also imagine that he, like all of us, has an engrained fear of being publicly shushed in the library. The “unsettling tale full of dark themes” will be republished with new art, and if you want to hear it read aloud in a moody setting hie thee to 18th-century temple Casino Marino for Dublin City Council Bram Stoker Festival.
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Cruel Intentions for a New Generation of Hormones
I distinctly remember that peak puberty moment in the ’90s sitting in the theater with my friends and fellow teen masses watching Cruel Intentions, AKA Dangerous Liaisons or Les Liaisons dangereuses for the youth. That 18th century French novel is one of a million proof points that what’s old is new again as we welcome a 2024 Cruel Intentions to the mix, but this time make it a series. Kathryn Merteuil’s iconic cross stash necklace is back and the rich kids are in college, so this is more a continuation than a reboot of the original. I wonder if Gen Z and the Alphas will unearth their parents’ CI VHS tapes and bring back cinchers and luxe satin loungewear.
Save Public Libraries and Schools By Voting Down-Ballot
As important as the top of the ballot is in elections—Book Riot has endorsed Kamala Harris for president because of how important this is in 2024 especially—down-ballot races across the nation have as much, if not more, impact on your everyday life. This is especially true when it comes to elections in your community for school and/or library boards. If you’ve been reading Literary Activism, you know this has been the same drum beat since this weekly column began, and it was emphasized again as one of the most potent things you can do to end book bans and censorship earlier this year.
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