Meet the authors behind several adult and children’s books PW is looking forward to for fall.
PW Presents: Authors Chat About Adult Books
Wednesday, May 25, 10–10:45 a.m. ET
Emcee: Jonathan Segura, PW senior v-p and executive editor
Authors
Alan Moore, Illuminations: Stories (Bloomsbury, $30, Oct. 11)
British author Alan Moore is widely regarded as one of the best comics writers of
all time. His Eisner Award–winning works include From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Lost Girls. Moore also wrote the New York Times bestselling novel Jerusalem. He lives in Northampton, U.K., where he was born and raised. Illuminations is his first collection of short stories.
Thomas E. Ricks, Waging a Good War: A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954–1968 (FSG, $30, Oct. 4)
Thomas E. Ricks is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Fiasco, which was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. During his tenure as a revered military correspondent for the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, he was a member of two Pulitzer Prize–winning teams. His latest book spotlights the unexpected use of military strategy during the civil rights movement and explores the movement’s lessons for nonviolent resistance.
Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar, The World Record Book of Racist Stories (Grand Central, $29, Nov. 8)
Comedian Amber Ruffin, the first Black woman in American history to write for a late-night talk show, and her big sister Lacey Lamar, who helps immigrants find work in their new country, follow up their New York Times bestselling book You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey with another collection of hilarious and outrageous anecdotes—this time incorporating stories from other family members—detailing their everyday experiences of racism.
Constance Wu, Making a Scene (Scribner, $29, Oct. 4)
Constance Wu is an actor from Richmond, Va. Her breakthrough leading role was in the ABC sitcom Fresh Off the Boat. Next, she starred in the groundbreaking film Crazy Rich Asians and the box-office smash hit Hustlers opposite Jennifer Lopez. In 2018 the ACLU honored her with the Bill of Rights Award. In her memoir-in-essays, Making a Scene, Wu shares funny, personal, and poignant stories from her life and career.
PW Presents: Authors Chat About Children’s Books
Thursday, May 26, 10–10:45 a.m. ET
Emcee: Jon Scieszka, The Real Dada Mother Goose: A Treasury of Complete Nonsense (Candlewick, $19.99, Oct. 11)
Jon Scieszka is best known for his humorous picture books illustrated by Lane Smith, including The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. He’s also the founder of Guys Read, an online program designed to encourage boys to become lifelong readers, and was appointed the first U.S. national ambassador for young people’s literature in 2008 and 2009. His latest book, illustrated by Julia Rothman, reimagines Blanche Fisher Wright’s The Real Mother Goose as inspired by Dadaism’s rejection of reason and rational thinking.
Authors
Chloe Gong, Foul Lady Fortune (McElderry, $21.99, Sept. 27)
Chloe Gong is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the YA novel These Violent Delights, a Romeo and Juliet–inspired tale set in 1920s Shanghai, and its sequel, Our Violent Ends. A recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she was born in Shanghai, raised in Auckland, New Zealand, and now lives in New York City. Foul Lady Fortune is the first volume in a new duology following ill-matched spies posing as a married couple in 1930s Shanghai.
Oliver Jeffers, Meanwhile Back on Earth (Philomel, $22.99, Oct. 4)
Author-illustrator Oliver Jeffers’s picture books include the New York Times bestsellers Stuck and Here We Are. He’s also the illustrator of the bestselling The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home, written by Drew Daywalt. Jeffers’s fine art has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. Meanwhile Back on Earth was inspired by his public art installation/sculpture trail Our Place in Space, on exhibit this spring and summer in Northern Ireland and Cambridge, England.
Justin A. Reynolds, Shot Clock (HarperCollins/Tegen, $16.99, Sept. 6)
Justin A. Reynolds’s debut YA novel, Opposite of Always, was an Indies Introduce top 10 debut and is being developed as a feature film. He’s also the author of Early Departures and the middle grade graphic novels Miles Morales: Shock Waves and Miles Morales: Stranger Tides, starring Brooklyn’s Spider-Man. His latest middle grade novel, co-written with two-time NBA all-star Caron Butler, launches a series spotlighting the players on an amateur basketball team coached by a former NBA star in his hometown.
Christina Soontornvat, The Tryout (Graphix, $12.99, Sept. 6)
Engineer and STEM educator Christina Soontornvat’s books for young readers span a range of categories. In 2021, her middle grade fantasy A Wish in the Dark and her nonfiction title All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team, both from Candlewick, were named Newbery Honor Books. The Tryout, illustrated by Joanna Cacao, is a graphic memoir chronicling her experiences trying out for the junior high cheerleading squad.
Click here to register for the U.S. Book Show, and click here for more information on the programming.
