Politics and Prose Bookstore Employees Move to Unionize
Employees at the three Politics and Prose bookstores in Washington, D.C. have decided to unionize. In doing so, Politics and Prose employees are joining a growing labor movement of retail workers across the country. If the bookstores employees are successful, theirs will be the only bookstore in the District with a unionized workforce. There are over 100 employees across the bookstore’s three locations, and organizers believe that 55 will be eligible for the union. “Politics & Prose has long been considered a progressive and inclusive bookstore,” said workers in a joint statement, “and our decision to unionize is a natural next step in the company’s ongoing effort to put our shared values into practice.” Owners have said that they won’t recognize the union until a majority of staff voted in a formal election, which some believe buys management time to disparage unionizing. Politics and Prose co-owner Bradley Graham responded to the worker’s statement in an email saying, “We’ve always valued the opportunity to work directly and collaboratively with you to solve problems and address your needs, from the professional to the personal. We believe a union at P&P would make our workplace more transactional, less personal, and less flexible.”
Amazon Adapting Viral Fantasy Novel The Atlas Six
Amazon has won the small-screen rights to fantasy novel Olivie Blake’s The Atlas Six, which went viral on TikTok earlier this year. Now, the streaming platform is adapting the novel as a series with London-based production company Bright Star, founded by The Crown producer Tanya Seghatchian and Cold War producer John Woodward. The Atlas Six was originally self-published via Kindle Digital Publishing. However, after the novel went viral on the social media site TikTok, with over 11M mentions, the novel’s instant popularity sparked a bidding war. Tor won the rights to the novel and is now publishing a revised and edited version with new illustrations in March 2022. The second book in the trilogy is set to be released in fall 2022.
Amanda Lohrey Wins $80,000 Fiction Prize for Her Novel The Labyrinth
Amanda Lohrey’s eighth novel The Labyrinth has won the $80,000 2021 Prime Minister’s Literary award for fiction. Judges praised Lohrey’s novel for its “considerable literary artistry,” and they described the 74-year-old Tasmanian author and academic as “a writer of uncompromising artistic purpose who is never content for the novel to be mere entertainment.” The Labyrinth has previously won both the 2021 Miles Franklin and the Voss literary prizes. Lohrey was not present at the ceremony. Instead, her literary agent Lyn Tranter accepted the award on the writer’s behalf and delivered a prepared acceptance speech that targeted the University of Sydney. “Australian literature has never been richer or more diverse,” Lohrey wrote. “So it was a great shock when our oldest university – Sydney – recently abolished its chair of Australian literature. I look forward to the day when the university re-establishes an institution that any self-respecting nation should be proud to showcase.”
2022 Comics and Graphic Novels to Add to Your TBR
2022 is almost here! Get ready for a new year of reading with these twelve comic books and graphic novels you won’t want to miss in 2022.