Macmillan Academic

06/18/2020

Coming in October 2020: HUMANS, the latest book from Brandon Stanton!

https://bit.ly/PreorderHumans

Five years ago I signed a contract for another book. The premise was simple: a collection of stories from around the world. The concept was quite easy to describe. But the creation proved much more difficult than I imagined. Even after fifty weeks of travel, it still didn’t seem like enough. I felt a lot of pressure to represent as many types of people as possible. So I asked my publisher for an extension. And another. Until here we are—two years past deadline, and it’s finally finished. But I think I can safely say: 'Humans' is the best book I’m capable of making. It’s 437 full-color pages. There are hundreds of stories from over forty countries-- about 15% of which are exclusive to the book. And since it’s curated rather than chronological, the book provides a different experience than looking at the blog. I was able to arrange the stories in interesting and surprising ways. My hope is that it feels like a tour of the world through the voices of random people. I also hope that the experience is especially meaningful in this time of restricted travel and increased isolation. Humans officially comes out October 6th. But if you definitely plan on getting a copy—I hope you’ll consider preordering now. Booksellers look closely at preorder numbers, so it always helps to make a strong showing right out of the gate. Thanks for all your support, and I hope you enjoy the book as much as I enjoyed making it. 'Humans' can be ordered here: https://bit.ly/PreorderHumans

06/16/2020

‘Weather’

'Weather': poet Claudia Rankine writes for The New York Times Books about the climate in America at this moment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/books/review/claudia-rankine-weather-poem-coronavirus.html

The poet Claudia Rankine writes for the Book Review about the climate in America at this moment.

06/15/2020

"The tensions between patience and urgency, between fear and resolve, between the promise of someday and the demands of right now, are at the heart of OUR TIME IS NOW."

Washington Post reviews OUR TIME IS NOW by Stacey Abrams.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/04/stacey-abrams-wants-be-bidens-veep-her-new-book-stresses-other-ambitions/

06/12/2020

Review | How a stubborn ex-federal employee launched the gay rights movement

"[Cervini] is a smooth writer and a brilliant researcher. Besides being the first full-length biography of the intellectual father of the gay liberation movement, Cervini’s work provides a wealth of fascinating new details about the movement before the Stonewall riots of 1969 . . . [A] rich portrait."

Washington Post reviews Eric Cervini's new New York Times bestseller, THE DEVIANT'S WAR.

Frank Kameny spent a lifetime changing American attitudes, Eric Cervini writes.

06/09/2020

Stacey Abrams Has a Message for You: Get Involved

"Stacey Abrams never conceals her ambition and dedication to transforming the system from within. As our democracy faces unprecedented peril, her time is now."

OUR TIME IS NOW by Stacey Abrams is out today!

She isn’t Georgia’s governor — she will tell you herself — but in “Our Time Is Now” she still has a blueprint for effective leadership.

06/08/2020

What We Want Is Black Life Affirmed

"Black life affirmed means that our people and our culture are not simply an accessory but are valued as an integral asset to this country. When this country invests in treating Black people with the dignity and respect we deserve, it gives way to having redemptive and healing conversations for all peoples."

Read more from Black Lives Matter co-founder and WHEN THEY CALL YOU A TERRORIST author Patrisse Cullors in Vogue.

https://www.vogue.com/article/patrisse-cullors-protest-op-ed

"Law enforcement should not be our first responders to everything. It is an impossible responsibility."

06/05/2020

Why Michael Eric Dyson Would Demote ‘Heart of Darkness’ From the Canon

Why Michael Eric Dyson Would Demote 'Heart of Darkness' From the Canon, via The New York Times Books.

nytimes.com/2020/06/04/books/review/michael-eric-dyson-by-the-book-interview.html

“It’s done so much damage in fashioning savage notions of Africa.”

06/04/2020

Wayétu Moore Escapes a Civil War in Liberia. In America, She Encounters a New Kind of Danger.

"This memoir adds an essential voice to the genre of migrant literature, challenging false popular narratives that migration is optional, permanent and always results in a better life."

The New York Times Books reviews Wayétu Moore's memoir, THE DRAGONS, THE GIANT, THE WOMEN.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/02/books/review/the-dragons-the-giant-the-women-wayetu-moore.html

“The Dragons, the Giant, the Women” is a migration memoir of separations, relocations and reunions.

06/03/2020

The Documentary - The Death Row book club - BBC Sounds

When Anthony Ray Hinton was sentenced to death for crimes he did not commit, he created a book club for his fellow death row inmates. It helped him through nearly 30 years of wrongful solitary confinement.

Listen to Mr. Hinton's story with BBC Sounds.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct0t5j

An inmate’s first-hand account of creating a book club on Death Row.

06/01/2020

Macmillan Publishers

A note from our CEO, John Sargent.

05/29/2020

For this historian, a book on gay rights activist Frank Kameny was the ‘ulterior motive’ - The Boston Globe

“The one thing I’ve learned from my research is that pride, even before Stonewall, has always been synonymous with resistance.”

DEVIANT'S WAR author Eric Cervini in The Boston Globe.

The project compelled Eric Cervini to earn his PhD.

05/28/2020

Starting college is always an exciting challenge, but students need even more support during these unprecedented times.

The first practical guide of its kind, HOW TO COLLEGE by Andrea Malkin Brenner and Lara Hope Schwartz is the ideal gift to help recent grads transition from high school to college.

Learn more about HOW TO COLLEGE and explore a variety of resources designed to help navigate the transition to college: https://www.c19toolkit.com/orientation.html

05/27/2020

Larry Kramer, Playwright and Outspoken AIDS Activist, Dies at 84

We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of author, LGBTQIA+ activist, and playwright Larry Kramer. His tireless activism exposed injustice and helped shock the U.S. into confronting the AIDS crisis.

https://t.co/WheA8Mnfnx?amp=1

He worked hard to shock the country into dealing with AIDS as a public-health emergency. But his confrontational approach could sometimes overshadow his achievements.

05/22/2020

To tackle the world’s big problems, this is the kind of imagination you must have

"Moral imagination means to view other people’s problems as if they were your own, and to begin to discern how to tackle those problems. And then to act accordingly. It summons us to understand and transcend the realities of current circumstances and to envision a better future for ourselves and others."

Read an excerpt from Jacqueline Novogratz's MANIFESTO FOR A MORAL REVOLUTION, via TED Talks.

“Moral imagination is the basis of an ethical framework for a world that recognizes our common humanity and insists on opportunity, choice and dignity for all of us,” says philanthropis…

05/21/2020

Opinion | The End of Meat Is Here

"We cannot protect our environment while continuing to eat meat regularly. This is not a refutable perspective, but a banal truism."

WE ARE THE WEATHER author Jonathan Safran Foer writes "The End of Meat is Here" for The New York Times Opinion Section.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/21/opinion/coronavirus-meat-vegetarianism.html

If you care about the working poor, about racial justice, and about climate change, you have to stop eating animals.

05/11/2020

He Can’t Save His Daughter. Can He Save Himself?

“Everett pulls off a gently tremendous technical feat with the accumulated little slips out of the present situation . . . For this reader, the reveries and exits accumulated such that the final and longest slide into the wilderness made the turn to the closing pages sad, affecting and marvelous.”

The New York Times Books reviews Percival Everett's latest novel, TELEPHONE.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/books/review/percival-everett-telephone.html

In Percival Everett’s novel “Telephone,” a geologist wrestles with reality after his daughter is stricken with a degenerative disease.

05/08/2020

Multiple Women, Three Centuries, One Far-Reaching New Novel

"Engrossing, highly readable . . . A meditation on female power and powerlessness, the stories told about women and the ones we tell about and to ourselves."

The New York Times Books reviews THE BOOK OF V. by Anna Solomon!

In “The Book of V.,” Anna Solomon explores how lives connect across time.

05/06/2020

In Thriller Form, 'The Lincoln Conspiracy' Details Early Plot To Kill The President

"An expertly crafted book that seems sure to delight readers with an interest in lesser-known episodes of American history."—NPR

THE LINCOLN CONSPIRACY by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch is on sale now!

https://www.npr.org/2020/05/05/849971260/in-thriller-form-the-lincoln-conspiracy-details-early-plot-to-kill-the-president

Authors Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch prove gifted at providing essential context, including deftly painting a picture of 19th-century America and the prevailing attitudes toward race and politics.

05/05/2020

Announcement of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize Winners

Congratulations to our 2020 Pulitzer Prizes winners, Greg Grandin (THE END OF THE MYTH) and Anne Boyer (THE UNDYING)!! #Pulitzer

https://www.pulitzer.org/news/announcement-2020-pulitzer-prize-winners

Pulitzer Administrator Dana Canedy announced the 2020 Pulitzer Prizes via video stream at Pulitzer.org on Monday, May 4. Watch video of the announcement and read the full list of winners. (A short list is available by scrolling down the page.) The Board also announces the election of its two co-c...

05/04/2020

Happy #TeacherAppreciationWeek, educators!🎉

Join NYT bestselling author Stephanie Garber TOMORROW (5/5) at 12 p.m. EST (9 a.m. PST) on Instagram as she takes over our account (@macmillanreads) to celebrate #NationalTeacherDay and the paperback publication of FINALE! She'll be doing bookshelf tours, answering your burning questions about the Caraval Series, and more! #ThankATeacher

https://www.instagram.com/macmillanreads/

05/01/2020

The First Secret Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln

On the way to his first inauguration, Abraham Lincoln got word that he was at risk of attack. Brad Meltzer on how he survived.

Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch's latest book, THE LINCOLN CONSPIRACY, is available on Tuesday (5/5)!

https://time.com/5829275/first-secret-plot-kill-lincoln/

On the way to his first inauguration, Abraham Lincoln got word that he was at risk of attack. Brad Meltzer on how he survived.

04/30/2020

What We Miss Without Museums

"To quiet myself, I imagined walking into the great lobby of the Metropolitan Museum of Art—hundreds of miles away from my dark room in Chicago."

What We Miss Without Museums by AUSTEN YEARS author Rachel Cohen in The New Yorker.

Museums know the desires of our hands. The special presence of paintings comes from their being at once untouchable and viscerally evocative of touch.

04/27/2020

'Sigh, Gone' Is A Refugee's Chaotic Memoir Of Displacement And Belonging

"In actuality and on the pages of this memoir, Tran's life goes off-road, defies reading plans or most other kinds of plans. Which makes SIGH, GONE a congenial read for our chaotic time."

NPR Fresh Air on Phuc Tran's new memoir, SIGH, GONE

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/23/842360478/sigh-gone-is-a-refugee-s-chaotic-memoir-of-displacement-and-belonging

Phuc Tran was a toddler in 1975 when his family fled Vietnam and landed in a small town in Pennsylvania. His memoir is a scrambled story of great books and punk rock.

04/24/2020

‘Miss Austen’ Review: Her Sister’s Keeper

"A delightfully astute reimagining of Jane Austen’s life that offers a shrewd take on Regency gender roles."

The Wall Street Journal reviews MISS AUSTEN by Gill Hornby!

Novelist Gill Hornby imagines what might have been in the letters that Jane Austen’s sister, Cassandra, destroyed late in her life.

04/22/2020

Assimilation and 80s Punk Culture in Small-Town Pennsylvania

Assimilation and 80s Punk Culture in Small-Town Pennsylvania.

Phuc Tran on what helped him survive isolation. Read an #excerpt from SIGH, GONE—out now! (via Literary Hub)

https://lithub.com/assimilation-and-80s-punk-culture-in-small-town-pennsylvania/

F**k that kid. That’s what I thought when I first saw Hoàng Nguyễn in eleventh grade. Hoàng never did anything to me, and he certainly never said anything to me. God, he hardly looked at me except …

04/20/2020

Los Angeles Times Book Prizes Winners Announced

Congratulations to our Los Angeles Times Book Prize winners—Ben Lerner (THE TOPEKA SCHOOL, Fiction), Ilya Kaminsky (DEAF REPUBLIC, Poetry), and Eleanor Davis (THE HARD TOMORROW, Graphic Novel/Comics)!

https://www.latimes.com/about/pressreleases/story/2020-04-17/40th-annual-book-prizes-winners-announced

Winning authors share brief video acceptance speeches on Twitter

04/19/2020

Perspective | Don’t wave away frivolous pleasures. Those are also ‘essential’ in hard times.

"In a canceled life, sustenance can look like bread but it can also look like flowers."

Monica Hesse writes for Washington Post about Gerda Weissmann Klein's memoir, ALL BUT MY LIFE, and the necessity of frivolous pleasures.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/dont-wave-away-frivolous-pleasures-those-are-also-essential-in-hard-times/2020/04/10/0eee9cda-7903-11ea-b6ff-597f170df8f8_story.html

Survival can mean feeding the soul as well as the body.

04/18/2020

On coronavirus, 'partial measures don't work' - CNN Video

Surgeon, public health expert, and BEING MORTAL author Dr. Atul Gawande says failure to take a complete national approach leads to higher rates of infection.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2020/04/03/amanpour-gawande-coronavirus.cnn?

Surgeon and public health expert Dr. Atul Gawande says failure to take a complete national approach leads to higher rates of infection and death.

04/17/2020

He Tried to Change the System, Then Became It

"A layered portrayal of a man who through several decades has carried with him the conflicting pieces—beauty and brutality, revolt and repression—of his country’s history.”

The New York Times Books reviews Dalia Sofer’s MAN OF MY TIME.

Dalia Sofer’s novel “Man of My Time” traces a man’s path from “baffled revolutionary to aging captive of a life gone wrong.”

04/16/2020

A MESSAGE OF GRATITUDE FROM ANTHONY RAY HINTON

A message of gratitude from THE SUN DOES SHINE author Anthony Ray Hinton. (via Idea Architects) St. Martin's Press

https://vimeo.com/407653521

This is "A MESSAGE OF GRATITUDE FROM ANTHONY RAY HINTON" by Cody Love on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

04/15/2020

Carl Safina: What Do Animals Tell Us About Ourselves — And Our Place In The World?

Ecologist and BECOMING WILD author Carl Safina says humans aren't the only ones who love, grieve, or think. He argues if animals are more complex than we once thought, shouldn't we reconsider the ethics of how we treat them? (via TED Radio Hour on NPR)

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/16/751502433/carl-safina-what-do-animals-tell-us-about-ourselves-and-our-place-in-the-world

Ecologist Carl Safina says humans aren't the only ones who love, grieve, or think. He argues if animals are more complex then we once thought, shouldn't we reconsider the ethics of how we treat them?

04/14/2020

We are thrilled to announce Marilynne Robinson's new novel, JACK, will be published in September 2020!

In celebration of JACK, Picador USA will also be reissuing GILEAD, HOME, and LILA with stunning new covers.

🔗 Learn more about JACK: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374279301

We are excited to reveal the cover for Marilynne Robinson's upcoming novel, Jack, publishing on September 29. Robinson returns to the world of Gilead for the latest novel in one of the great works of contemporary American fiction.
In celebration of the publication of Jack, @Picador will be reissuing Gilead, Home, and Lila with new covers designed by Na Kim (@na_son) with paintings by Charles E. Burchfield (@bpartcenter)

04/10/2020

What precautions health care facilities should be taking to protect their workers

What else can be done to protect frontline health care workers and reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus? Dr. Atul Gawande has just published a piece outlining the specific insights he has derived from the outbreak experiences of Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. A surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and the CEO of Haven, Dr. Gawande joins PBS NewsHour to discuss.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-precautions-health-care-facilities-should-be-taking-to-protect-their-workers

What else can be done to protect frontline health care workers and reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus? Dr. Atul Gawande has just published a piece outlining the specific insights he has derived from the outbreak experiences of Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. A surgeon at Brigham and Wo...