News Today’s Book News Monday, 24th November

[AgentPete]

Today’s Book News Monday, 24th November 2025

Indie presses joined forces, publishers sealed acquisitions and a novel competition promised a book deal as the weekend brought a flurry of deals and award news.

N.Y.C. Presses Come Together for the ‘Labor of Poetry’​

Five New York City small presses—Belladonna* Collaborative, Futurepoem, Litmus Press, Winter Editions and World Poetry—formed Poetry Corp., an “informal mutual‑aid” cooperative, to share resources such as staff and mailing lists and sustain experimental poetry publishing The group hopes to tap new donors and alternative funding models as nonprofit presses face cuts to arts funding and a weak philanthropy culture

The Black List Teams with Blackstone on Manuscript Initiative​

The Black List, best known for highlighting unproduced screenplays, partnered with Blackstone Publishing to create a novel initiative awarding a $25,000 book deal to an unpublished fiction manuscript Submissions are open until June 9 2026 and eligible works in any genre must be previously unpublished; organisers say they seek fresh perspectives on themes such as love, betrayal, family and obsession, especially in high‑intensity genres

Catapult Acquires Hawthorne Books​

Catapult Books acquired Portland‑based Hawthorne Books, adding about 50 titles to its list and making the small press Catapult’s fourth imprint Founder Rhonda Hughes will stay on as a contributing editor, the backlist will move to Penguin Random House distribution and new titles are expected to launch in autumn 2026

Book Deals: Week of November 24 2025​

Putnam preempted world rights to Josh Kendall’s debut thriller *I’m Not Here to Hunt Rabbits*, about an elite security contractor in Ethiopia Minotaur bought Charlotte Alter’s *See Jane Run*, a series opener following a journalist‑turned‑sleuth while Summit Books preempted Ony Ratsifandrihamanana’s novel *A Long Ballad of a Short Marriage*, set on an Indian Ocean island Additional deals included Amistad acquiring Samuel Kolawole’s dystopian novel *Blackland* and story collection *The Hyena Boys* and Requited preempting Caty Rogan’s romantasy *Kissed by the Gods*

ALA Announces Shortlist for 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medals​

The American Library Association revealed six titles for the 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence, with a notable emphasis on works in translation. Fiction finalists are Megha Majumdar’s *A Guardian and a Thief*, Agustina Bazterrica’s *The Unworthy* (translated by Sarah Moses) and Han Kang’s *We Do Not Part* (translated by e. yaewon & Paige Aniyah Morris) Nonfiction contenders include Mélikah Abdelmoumen’s *Baldwin, Styron, and Me* (translated by Catherine Khordoc), Brian Goldstone’s *There Is No Place for Us* and Yiyun Li’s memoir *Things in Nature Merely Grow* winners will be announced on January 27 2026 and each will receive £5,000