BIPOC Book News: Let’s Talk Book Awards, New Book Releases, and Book Sanctuaries

It’s time for another edition of my new BIPOC Book News column. I wanted to come up with a clever name for this column, but sometimes just getting to the point, is better than being clever. Wouldn’t you agree? Whether you agree with my title or not, I hope you agree that having one place to get the latest news and updates from the books and publishing world, from a BIPOC perspective is useful for your literary life.

In this week’s column, you’ll find information about book awards, new book releases, and the growing book sanctuary movement. Not to mention, an exciting book-to-screen adaptation that’s in the works.

I hope you enjoy this week’s BIPOC Book News, and if you have your own book news to share, send me a note through the Work With Me page on this website.

“I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter,” but I am Going to Be a Movie

The bestselling YA novel, I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (Knopf) is coming to a screen near you, with America Ferrera set to direct. HipLatina.com reports that the book had been optioned back in 2021, but the production stalled. Now, as of early February 2024, the film has been picked up by Amazon MGM studios. This will be Ferrera’s directorial debut.

While you’re waiting for the screen version to premiere, feel free to read the book by Erika L. Sanchez, which tells the story of a Mexican-American teen, Julia, who lives in the shadow of her “perfect sister” who dies in a car accident. Over the course of the story, Julia discovers her sister wasn’t so perfect after all. When the book debuted in 2017, it hit #1 on The New York Times Bestseller's list.

The National Book Awards are Now Open to Non-Citizens

In book award news, this week the publishing world is talking about the fact that The National Book Foundation adjusted their criteria for who was eligible to win the prestigious National Book Award. Previously, authors had to be US citizens in order to be considered eligible, which basically excluded a lot of immigrant authors from being considered for the prize, regardless of whether or not they lived in the United States for the majority of their lives. The Pulitzer Prize committee made this change last year, prompting the National Book Awards to do the same.

Ingrid Rojas Contreras, author of the gorgeous memoir, The Man Who Could Move Clouds, argued for this change for the Pulitzer Prizes in an open letter that partially read, “We have a duty to ask what constitutes the literature of a nation, and in asking this question, we believe it is essential to veer away from the definitions the State provides as to what it thinks constitutes U.S. selfhood.”

According to LitHub.com: “Beginning with the 75th National Book Awards, submissions for which open on March 13 of this year, the prizes will be open not only to US citizens but also “authors who maintain their primary, long-term home in the United States, US territories, or Tribal lands.” This is good news.

BIPOC Editors Winning

Congratulations must go to Sally Kim. On March 4, Kim will step into her new role as president and publisher of Little Brown, & Co. Currently a senior vice president and publisher at Putnam, Kim has been in the publishing business for 30 years. Some of the incredible BIPOC authors she’s worked with as an editor include, Robert Jones Jr. (on The Prophet) and Kiley Reid (on Such a Fun Age.) Moving up to the position of president and publisher makes Kim one of a very few BIPOC women in executive leadership positions in the publishing industry in the United States, so we’re cheering for her ascendency over here at Reed, Write, & Create.

Book Bans Lead to Book Sanctuaries

This is not what the Chicago Public Library means when calling for Book Sanctuaries, but this is what my mind conjures up with the words, Book Sanctuary.

Book banning is at an all-time high in the United Sates. Publisher’s Weekly reports that, “Between January 1 and August 31, 2023, the ALA reported that even more books were challenged than during the same period in 2022—1,915 unique titles—with a noteworthy increase in challenges at public libraries.” As BIPOC writers and the readers who love their work, this is a particularly alarming trend because book bans tend to target books by BIPOC authors, as well books by women, and members of LGBTQ community.

But libraries and librarians are fighting back.

The Book Sanctuary movement is a new initiative where libraries promise to be official sanctuaries for books that have been banned or are targeted for banning. One of the leaders in this movement is the Chicago Public Library system which declared all of their branch libraries official book sanctuaries. And they set up a book sanctuary website to help other libraries to do the same. According to their website, there are already 3449 book sanctuaries across the United States. Take that book banners!

But it’s not just libraries getting in on the action. Bookstores, coffeeshops, local communities with their Little Free Libraries, even individuals are becoming official book sanctuaries and making sure banned books are protected and made available to readers who want them, and more importantly, to those who need them.

Hot Off the Presses: Ours by Phillip B. Williams

In this last piece of BIPOC Book News, I’ll be sharing a new book that I’m excited about. This week, it’s Ours by Phillip B. Williams. Ours was released just yesterday, February 20, 2024, and I cannot wait to get my hands on it and I’m not just saying that because Oprah said the same thing. I can’t wait to read it because it sounds amazing, and incorporates all of my favorite things: revisionist history where Black people win, magical realism, some roots magic, and a strong female lead. Also, they’re calling it an epic. I love an epic story. I’m sure I’m going to love, Ours.