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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Where is Publishing’s Response to the Neil Gaiman Allegations?
On Monday, New York Magazine revealed this week’s cover story: Lila Shapiro’s deeply reported investigation into sexual assault allegations against Neil Gaiman. It’s a piece months in the making—news first broke of the allegations last July—and which many of us in publishing had been waiting for. Gaiman issued a response on his blog yesterday, which several of his accusers described as, “the same non-apology that women in this situation have seen so many times before.” This morning, the NYT‘s Elisabeth Egan and Alexandra Alter reported on the allegations and Gaiman’s response and noted that, “While some of Gaiman’s television and film projects were dropped following the initial allegations, the responses from his publishers, agents and professional collaborators have been far more subdued.”
“Subdued” is a generous description. Mainstream publications including The Washington Post, The Guardian, and NPR have all covered the story, but responses have been almost entirely absent from within the publishing industry and publishing media, with the exception of a paywalled piece at Publishers Lunch. Gaiman’s agents declined to comment for the Times piece, as did DC Comics. Norton did not respond to inquiries. And HarperCollins and Marvel, two of Gaiman’s most frequent publishers, noted only that they do not have new books coming from him. As for book media’s main players? Nothing from Publishers Weekly. Nothing from Shelf Awareness. Nothing from Lit Hub or the LA Times. I can’t presume to know what my peers at these publications are thinking or why they’ve chosen to stay silent. I’d like to believe they have their reasons. What’s hard to believe is that any of them are good. Readers deserve better.
Tolkien’s Cartographer Receives Belated Remembrance
The latest installment in the New York Times‘s “Overlooked” series, which offers obituaries for notable figures whose deaths initially went unreported, celebrates the life and work of cartographer Karen Wynn Fonstad, who mapped Tolkien’s Middle-earth. In an inspiring display of moxie, Fonstad cold-called Tolkien’s American publisher in 1977 to pitch herself for the job (that no one had asked for) of creating an exhaustive atlas of Middle-earth. After two-and-a-half years scrutinizing the texts of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and resolving Tolkien’s use of multiple, sometimes conflicting, units of measure, Fonstad published The Atlas of Middle-earth. The remarkable volume—still in print today—led to work mapping other fantasy lands, including Anne McCaffrey’s Pern, and influenced generations of cartographers who would carry the practice forward into new sci-fi and fantasy series as well as the gaming industry. Brava.
Boston’s First Romance Bookstore Opens This Weekend
The last few years have seen a boom in bookstores focused exclusively on romance, and this weekend, Boston will join the growing list of cities that can boast of having one. Lovestruck Books, located in Harvard Square, will open Friday, January 17 with a celebration that will include raffles, tarot card readings, blind-date-with-a-book opportunities, a coffee tasting hosted by the in-store cafe run by George Howell Coffee, and a chance to create custom jewelry. Per a release issued earlier this week, owner Rachel Kanter hopes Lovestruck will become “a vibrant community where guests can indulge in their love for romance, explore new narratives, and feel a sense of belonging,” noting that the store will emphasize “titles penned by women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ authors, and more.” May her efforts succeed.
Book Trend Predictions for 2025
Will it be dark dystopias or cozy, hopeful stories? (Why not both?) How will publishing approach diversity and inclusion? Will traditional publishers continue to snap up successful self-published authors? Book Riot contributors predict the book trends of 2025.