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Publishing Industry News: Feb. 7, 2020

Curious about what’s happening in the world of books and publishing? Catch up on the biggest acquisitions, news, adaptations and more here!

• Above the Treeline presented the Edelweiss360 program during the American Booksellers Association’s Winter Institute. The program will give independent booksellers an easier way to send customized emails to their customers and offer bookstores their own branded, mobile-friendly website. Customers can log in, and booksellers can sell directly to them.

• Flatiron Books – the publisher of American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins – has canceled the remainder of the author’s national book tour. The book has received a lot of backlash since its publication, and the publisher canceled the tour because of “specific threats to booksellers and the author,” which in some cases have included “threats of physical violence.”

• Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Dave Matthews is teaming up with children’s author Clete Barrett Smith to write a middle-grade fantasy novel, If We Were Giants. The book is heavily influenced by Matthews’ work as a humanitarian and environmentalist, his exploration of the forests of Virginia, and time spent with the San people of South Africa, where Matthews was born. The novel is a compelling story about overcoming loss, embracing community and living in harmony with nature.

• Barnes & Noble has announced the winning and notable titles of its Discover Great New Writers Awards. The fiction winner is The Golden Child by Claire Adam, a debut novel set in Trinidad that follows a family facing difficult choices. The nonfiction winner is What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young, a thoughtful and often humorous collection of essays on race, culture and being an African-American male in America.

• The winners of the 2020 Asian Pacific American Award for Literature were announced Jan. 27. Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom by Teresa Robeson and illustrated by Rebecca Huang won in the picture-book category; Stargazing by Jen Wang won in the children’s literature category; They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott, and illustrated by Harmony Becker, won for young-adult literature; Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad by Gordon H. Chang won the adult nonfiction award; and The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar won for adult fiction.