The Strothman Agency, LLC

12/11/2019

The Light As She Saw It: On Sitting in Emily Dickinson’s Bedroom

By AFTER EMILY author Julie Dobrow.

12/10/2019

The Best YA Books of 2019 | The Nerd Daily

The Nerd Daily picks Helene Dunbar Writes' WE ARE LOST AND FOUND as one of their best YA books of 2019!

12/09/2019

The best nonfiction books of 2019 pull you into other lives

The Christian Science Monitor picks YOUNG CASTRO by Jonathan Hansen as one of their " best nonfiction books of 2019 pull you into other lives":

Jonathan M. Hansen crafts a portrait of Fidel Castro before the beard, before the Cuban missile crisis, and long before the fall of the Soviet Union. The book succeeds wonderfully in making young Castro – idealist and a devourer of books – come alive."

11/23/2019

‘Game Of Thrones’ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Forms Production Company; Options YA Novel ‘We Are Lost & Found’

"...That new journey and new role for the trio and Ill Kippers includes an adaptation of the recently released YA novel WE ARE LOST AND FOUND [by Helene Dunbar Writes] among the entity’s early offerings. Published back in September, the coming of age book from author Helene Dunbar is set in the Big Apple of 1983, as the Reagan Era and the AIDS epidemic both begin for a trio of friends. The project will likely be primed for a big screen life, but a TV series is currently a possibility too."

11/21/2019

Parkes+MacDonald Acquires Novels ‘My Lady Jane’ & ‘People Like Her’ Novels For TV Series Development

Parkes+MacDonald has acquired the television rights to two titles – Cynthia Hand, New York Times bestselling author Author Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows’ New York Times bestselling novel My Lady Jane, and forthcoming thriller novel People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd, for series development.

11/21/2019

‘Love Unknown. The Life and Worlds of Elizabeth Bishop’ by Thomas...

“The life story of the poet Elizabeth Bishop would be enthralling even without her poetry. For anyone seeking an introduction to her work, this insightful new biography is a great place to start…As someone who has immersed himself in Bishop studies over the four decades since her death, Travisano is an ideal guide to her major poems…A successful biography of a writer impels readers to seek out their work, letters and even other earlier biographies. I was less than a third of the way through the book when I ordered Bishop’s Complete Poems. This biography bears witness to Bishop’s genius for friendship and a life full of adventure and daring.” -- Lambda Literary

For anyone seeking an introduction to Elizabeth Bishop's work, this insightful new biography is a great place to start #Lesbian #BioMemoir #Biography

11/19/2019

Happiness by Jane Kenyon

Poem of the Day: Happiness by Jane Kenyon via Poetry Foundation & Poetry Magazine.

There’s just no accounting for happiness,

11/04/2019

Exclusive Cover Reveal + Excerpt: Teens Try to Save an Indie Bookstore in This Is All Your Fault

"If you’ve picked up a book by Aminah Mae Safi, you know that she writes wonderfully diverse and inclusive YA contemporary novels. From Not the Girls You’re Looking For to Tell Me How You Really Feel, her narratives are consistently packed with humor and warmth. Safi’s latest, This Is All Your Fault, takes aim at our bookish hearts with the story of three teen girls on a mission to save their favorite indie bookstore. It’s a little bit Empire Records, a little bit The Breakfast Club and definitely not to be missed." -- Paste Magazine

Aminah Mae Safi's latest Young Adult novel is like 'Empire Records' meets 'The Breakfast Club.'

11/01/2019

‘Love Unknown’ Review: A Poet Out of Place

"In Thomas Travisano’s “Love Unknown: The Life and Worlds of Elizabeth Bishop, ” the poet comes off as a mirror image of her gentleman. Her experiences, too, called for uncertainty, readjustment and no shortage of exhilaration. Throughout her life, she pivoted among households, countries, relationships and continents—all the while producing groundbreaking poetry of a deceptive stillness...." -- The Wall Street Journal

10/29/2019

Love Unknown: The Life and Worlds of Elizabeth Bishop

A THIRD ⭐️ review for Thomas Travisano's LOVE UNKNOWN, this time from Library Journal! "[A] a masterly biography ... This definitive account of Bishop’s contributions to American letters will attract both casual readers of her poetry as well as academics with more specialized knowledge of her work."

10/28/2019

Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, October 25 Edition - The Hub

"This book takes a much needed look at queer history, and it shows how complicated family truly can be. [Helene Dunbar Writes]'s thoughtful prose pays homage to all of those that came before. With an authentic voice, flawed characters, and a quiet plot, this book is a coming of age story that many teens today can still relate to." --Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, October 25 Edition

Click here to see all of the current Best Fiction for Young Adults nominees along with more information about the list and past years’ selections.…

10/28/2019

Lili Reinhart Tells AD the One Thing You Won’t Find in Her Home

"I really enjoy reading on set. When you’re in a world of make-believe all day, it is nice to kind of distract yourself. When you’re working at the same place for 16 hours a day, you need something to keep you busy in your downtime. So right now I have been watching a lot of Dragons’ Den on Netflix—which is the Canadian equivalent of Shark Tank, but then I’ve also been reading a lot lately. Right now I’m reading We Are Lost and Found by Helene Dunbar Writes. It is about a teenager living through the AIDS epidemic in the ’80s. "

09/23/2019

The 100 best books of the 21st century

The 100 best books of the 21st century

#86 Adults in the Room by Yanis Varoufakis (2017)

"This memoir by the leather-jacketed economist of the six months he spent as Greece’s finance minister in 2015 at a time of economic and political crisis has been described as “one of the best political memoirs ever written”. He comes up against the IMF, the European institutions, Wall Street, billionaires and media owners and is told how the system works – as a result, his book is a telling description of modern power." -- The Guardian

09/20/2019

The Cundill History Prize

So delighted to see David W. Blight's FREDERICK DOUGLASS on yet another extraordinary shortlist!

And here it is! We are delighted to present the 2019 Cundill History Prize shortlist. Huge congratulations to the eight exceptional historians who have been nominated for the leading international prize for history writing. This year’s selection of 8 books was whittled down from a longlist of 14 by our judges Alan Taylor, Charlotte Gray, Robert Gerwarth, Jane Kamensky and Rana Mitter. Full shortlist below, a huge congratulations to all shortlisted authors and publishers:

Unruly Waters: How Rain, Rivers, Coasts, and Seas Have Shaped Asia's History by Sunil Amrith (Basic Books - US, Allen Lane - UK)

Orphans of Empire: The Fate of London's Foundlings by Helen Berry (Oxford University Press)

Frederick Douglass: American Prophet by David Blight (Simon & Schuster)

Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice by Mary Fulbrook (Oxford University Press)

A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution by Toby Green (University of Chicago Press - US, Allen Lane - UK)

American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic by Victoria Johnson (Liveright Publishing - US)

These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore (Norton & Company - US)

Maoism: A Global History by Julia Lovell (The Bodley Head - UK, Knopf - US)



#CundillHistoryPrize #History #BookPrizes #McGill #PeterCundill

08/22/2019

Lit Hub’s Fall 2019 Nonfiction Preview: Biography

“It’s easy to assign a singular line to an artist and remember them forever by it; for Elizabeth Bishop that line would be the ironic, ‘the art of losing isn’t hard to master.’ Thomas Travisano’s wide-ranging biography allows Bishop to emerge as much more than a poet of loss but an artist and personality made up of want and adventure and the fire-y eye and pen that transformed ordinary things into gold.” -- Literary Hub

This week we’ve been previewing the most anticipated nonfiction titles coming out this fall, covering memoir, essays, politics, science, tech, social science, and more. We continue today with biogr…

08/20/2019

Music and morals in New York’s ragtime age

"[A] terrifically entertaining book... . An energetic, colourful tour of subterranean dens of iniquity." -- The Economist

08/14/2019

A History of Dance in New York | All Of It | WNYC

Author Dale Cockrell joins WNYC to discuss his new book, Everybody's Doin' It: Sex, Music, and Dance in New York, 1840-1917.

Author Dale Cockrell on his new book, "Everybody's Doin' It: Sex, Music, and Dance in New York, 1840-1917."

08/02/2019

The Seventh Inning by Donald Hall

The Poetry Foundation & Poetry Magazine's Poem of the Day:

1. Baseball, I warrant, is not the whole

07/29/2019

EPISODES — CALL YOUR GIRLFRIEND

Listen to Aminah Mae Safi chat about TELL ME HOW YOU REALLY FEEL on the latest episode of Call Your Girlfriend!

07/19/2019

Audible's Captions Program Raises Copyright Fears Among Publishers

In which Wendy shares her thoughts on the blatant rights grab of Audible's new captions program.

The new speech-to-text program from Audible, still in beta, has unnerved publishing industry members, with one major publisher calling it a clear violation of our terms of sale.

07/12/2019

Tell Me How You Really Feel

Another glowing review for Aminah Mae Safi!

"Tell Me How You Really Feel is the best kind of rom-com: genuine and absorbing, with wonderfully over-the-top declarations of love.” -- @shelfawareness

Rachel Consuela Recht has hated Sana Khan ever since the "perfect, delicate, tiny girly" girl asked for her number freshman year.

07/08/2019

The Prophet Is Human - Los Angeles Review of Books

"[A] well-crafted tour de force." -- Los Angeles Review of Books

A towering new biography of a great American orator and public intellectual.

07/08/2019

Young Castro

Author Jonathan Hansen discusses his book YOUNG CASTRO on C-SPAN's BOOKTv.

Harvard University Latin American Studies lecturer Jonathan Hansen recalls the early life of Fidel Castro.

06/27/2019

The best books to read at every age, from 1 to 100

AGE 89
“A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing 90”
BY DONALD HALL

“Why should the nonagenarian hold anything back?” That, you’ll be happy to hear, is a rhetorical question.

06/26/2019

Our Most Anticipated LGBTQAP YAs of 2019: July to December

Delighted to see Helene Dunbar's YA historical WE ARE LOST AND FOUND included on this wonderful list!

06/26/2019

The longlist for the 2019 Cundill History Prize | Cundill Prize

Congratulations to David W Blight who has been longlisted for the 2019 The Cundill History Prize!

06/25/2019

Nonfiction Book Review: Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America by W. Caleb McDaniel. Oxford Univ, $27.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-19-084699-2

"In this gripping study, Rice University historian W. Caleb McDaniel recounts the painful but triumphant story of one enslaved woman’s long fight for justice. ... McDaniel tells this story engrossingly and accessibly. This is a valuable contribution to Reconstruction history with clear relevance to current debates about reparations for slavery." -- Publishers Weekly

In this gripping study, Rice University historian McDaniel recounts the painful but triumphant story of one enslaved woman’s long fight for justice. Henrietta Wood, born into bondage, was freed by her

06/18/2019

WE ARE LOST AND FOUND by Helene Dunbar | Kirkus Reviews

The first review for WE ARE LOST AND FOUND by Helene Dunbar Writes is in!

“The racially and religiously diverse cast, emphasis on safe sex practices, and careful maneuvering around queer plot tropes offer a compelling, teen-movie-esque portrait of the times… A painful but ultimately empowering queer history lesson.” -- Kirkus Reviews

Teens in 1980s New York City navigate adolescence in the wake of the AIDS crisis.

06/17/2019

In 'Tell Me How You Really Feel,' A Touching, TV-Inspired Love Story

"[D]ense, wonderful and fulfilling — an enemies-to-lovers story that stands out all on its own. ... It was no small feat to write such a story, and I was impressed with how Safi rose to the challenge with near-flawless execution." -- Alethea Kontis for NPR

Aminah Mae Safi's new young adult novel is rooted in a famous plot arc from the television show Gilmore Girls — but you don't have to be a fan to enjoy this dense, fulfilling love story.

06/12/2019

How the Real Miss Rumphius Decorated Maine With Lupines - New England Historical Society

"There was a real Miss Rumphius who lived in Christmas Cove and secretly planted lupine seeds to adorn Maine’s roadsides and meadows.

The fake Miss Rumphius was the subject of a 1982 children’s book written by Barbara Cooney.

The real Miss Rumphius is at least partly responsible for the gorgeous show of lupines throughout Maine’s countryside in early summer. The wildflowers thrive in Maine, but they aren’t native to the state. How they got there and spread in such profusion is a mystery explained only by – well, an old lady who was the real Miss Rumphius. ..."

06/12/2019

Summer 2019’s Can’t-Miss Young Adult Books | Bookish

We also think you should read Aminah Mae Safi's YA romcom TELL ME HOW YOU REALLY FEEL this summer!

This summer will be one for the books! We’ve rounded up 12 of summer’s must-read young adult books, and you’ll want to read them all.

06/05/2019

June 2019 Reads for the Rest of Us

TELL ME HOW YOU REALLY FEEL by Aminah Mae Safi is included on this wonderful MS. Magazine June reading list!

06/05/2019

14 books to read in honor of LGBTQ+ pride month

Both Helene Dunbar's WE ARE LOST IN FOUND (Sourcebooks, September 3rd 2019) and Aminah Mae Safi's TELL ME HOW YOU REALLY FEEL (Feiwel & Friends, June 11, 2019) are featured on this GIRL'S LIFE round up!

06/05/2019

Pride, Progress and Politics: 50 Years Since Stonewall

Client Ron Goldberg is included in this fantastic piece on ‘Pride, Progress and Politics: 50 Years Since Stonewall’ from WBAI 99.5 FM New York this week!

On Sunday, June 2, 2019, Driving Forces cohost Jeff Simmons led WBAI's special coverage, Pride, Progress, and Politics: 50 Years Since Stonewall. Guests during the third hour of the show were: Columbi

05/28/2019

Really fun day, and a great reward for David's brilliant work!

Wendy Strothman and FREDERICK DOUGLASS author David W. Blight at the Pulitzer Prize luncheon today!

05/28/2019

Wendy Strothman and FREDERICK DOUGLASS author David W. Blight at the Pulitzer Prize luncheon today!

05/20/2019

24 YA Books To Devour During Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

16. Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi
Release date: June 11

What it's about: Sana Khan is a cheerleader, straight-A student, and overachiever. Rachel Recht has one ambition: To become a director someday. Rachel hates Sana, mostly because she believes she was the butt of a cruel prank at Sana's expense in the past. After a certain incident on campus, both girls are forced to work together on Rachel's directorial project — what could go wrong? This is an amazing F/F, enemies-to-lovers YA romance that draws inspiration from the iconic Paris and Rory friendship from Gilmore Girls, set in Los Angeles.

05/15/2019

Tell Me How You Really Feel | IndieBound.org

Aminah Mae Safi's TELL ME HOW YOUR REALLY FEEL was picked by independent booksellers for the Summer 2019 Kids Indie Next List!

“If you wanted Gilmore Girls to be a little less white and a whole lot gayer, this is the book for you. It’s a rom-com about two ambitious women fighting against the world, themselves, and their feelings for each other, and learning how all those things can peacefully coexist. This book is a lot like your favorite rom-coms but with a cast of characters you don’t usually see.”
— Mackenzie Van Engelenhoven, The King's English Bookshop, Salt Lake City, UT

Aminah Mae Safi's Tell Me How You Really Feel is an ode to romantic comedies, following two girls on opposite sides of the social scale as they work together to make a movie and try very hard not to fall in love.

05/10/2019

Megaphone Player

FIELD OF BLOOD author Joanne Freeman is on the Ezra Klein show this week discussing polarization, political violence, & experiencing 2019 as a historian. (Podcast) https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=VMP4644708795

05/01/2019

The Strothman Agency, LLC

So excited about this!!

The Obama’s new production company, Higher Ground Productions, will be producing a film adaptation of David W. Blight’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography FREDERICK DOUGLASS: PROPHET OF FREEDOM!