Many publishers have once again paused, post­poned, or rescinded their plans to open offices for in-person employees, this time in response to the rise of the omicron variant of COVID-19.

Macmillan was scheduled to reopen its offices in New York City on January 10, but the opening has been postponed indefinitely. Employees will receive 30 days notice before they have to come back. Vaccinated staff may continue to come in ...Read More

Lit Hub has announced its 48-title list of the best books of 2021. Titles and authors of genre interest follow.

• Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters (One World)
• The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enriquez (Hogarth)
• The Vixen, Francine Prose (Harper)
• Light Perpetual, Francis Spufford (Scribner)
• The Scapegoat, Sara Davis (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Dear Senthuran, Akwaeke Emezi (Riverhead)
• The Wrong End of the Telescope

Buzzfeed has announced its 22-title list of the best books of 2021. Titles and authors of genre interest follow.

For the full list of Buzzfeed‘s recommendations, see their post.

While you are here, please take a moment to support ...Read More

Penguin Random House published their latest annual report on their workplace demographics, tracking their efforts to improve diversity. The majority of employees in both office and warehouse jobs are still white (74% and 75%), but 52% of new hires in 2021 are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). That’s an increase from 43% the year before. 17% of new hires were of Asian descent (up from 9.9%), 14% were ...Read More

Embracer Group, a Swedish video game company, has acquired Dark Horse Comics, an independent comic publishing house. Dark Horse founder Mike Richardson, and Dark Horse COO Neil Hankerson will continue to direct Dark Horse operations, and there are currently no plans to restructure.

Richardson says of the acquisition:

I can’t express the excitement I feel as Dark Horse moves into this new chapter in our history. The synergies that exist ...Read More

Booklist has announced its top adult books of 2021, with 10 categories including Arts & Literature, Fiction, and Genre Fiction. Titles and authors of genre interest follow.

People has announced its 10-title list of best books of 2021. Authors and titles of genre interest include:

•  The Love Songs of W.E.B Du Bois, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (Harper)
• The Plot, Jean Hanff Korelitz (Celadon)
• Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro (Knopf)

For the full list, see the article here.

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. ...Read More

Polygon has announced its 20 best SF and fantasy titles of 2021. The list includes:

•  A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Becky Chambers (Tordotcom)
• Black Water Sister, Zen Cho (Ace)
• The Bronzed Beast, Roshani Chokshi (Wednesday)
• Leviathan Falls, James S.A. Corey (Orbit)
• The Last Watch, J.S. Dewes (Tor)
• Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr (Scribner)
• The Witch’s Heart, Genevieve Gornichec (Ace)
• The Shadow of the

TeenVogue has announced their best books of 2021. The 11-title list includes titles and authors of genre interest including:

• One Last Stop, Casey McQuiston (Griffin)
• How The Word is Passed, Clint Smith (Little, Brown)
• The Gilded Ones, Namina Forna (Delacarte)
• Blackout, Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon (Quill Tree)
• Dear Senthuran, Akwaeke Emezi (Riverhead)

For the full ...Read More

The Guardian has listed the best SF and fantasy books of 2021, as selected by Adam Roberts. The five-title list has:

• Far from the Light of Heaven, Tade Thompson (Orbit)
• The Actual Star, Monica Byrne (Voyager)
• Cwen, Alice Albinia (Serpent’s Tail)
• The Employees, Olga Ravn (Lolli Editions)
• Shards of Earth, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor)

For more, see the article.

While you are here, please take a ...Read More

Time has selected their 100 must-read books of 2021, selecting titles that “shifted our perspectives, uncovered essential truths and encouraged us forward.” Works of genre interest include:

The editors of The New York Times Book Review selected their ten best books of the year, including The Love Songs of W.E.B Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (HarperCollins) and How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue (Random House).

They also listed 100 Notable Books of 2020, including the following titles of genre interest:

The Financial Times has announced the five best SF books of 2021, as selected by James Lovegrove:

Kirkus has announced its list of the eight best science fiction and fantasy books of 2021:

The Washington Post has published a piece on the best SF, fantasy, and horror of 2021, selected by writers Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Lavie Tidhar. Books mentioned include:

• Unity, Elly Bangs (Tachyon)
• His Name Was Death, Rafael Bernal (New Directions)
• Inscape, Louise Carey (Gollancz)
• Goddess of Filth, V. Castro (Creature)
• Philosophy Through Science Fiction, Helen De Cruz, Johon De Smedt & Eric Schwitzgebel, eds. (Bloomsbury Academic)

Weird Tales and Blackstone Publishing have announced a major new partnership, with Blackstone planning to publish 50 new books in five years under the banner “Weird Tales Presents.”

Titles will include “original novels and anthologies, compilations, and more, penned by some of the biggest names in horror and dark fiction, while also introducing new voices,” with print, e-book, and audiobook editions planned. Blackstone will also distribute the digital and audio ...Read More

The United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit on November 2, 2021 to stop the proposed merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster. The government cited concerns that the deal would be detrimental to writers because it would “likely to substantially lessen competition,” leading to a “highly concentrated” market: “The merger would give Penguin Random House outsized influence over who and what is published, and how much ...Read More

Penguin Random House imprints Pantheon and Schocken Books will no longer be divisions of Alfred A. Knopf, but will instead operate as an imprint alongside Vintage/Anchor, Doubleday, and Knopf, as equal parts of the Knopf Doubleday publishing group. In the announcement, group president and publisher Maya Mavjee noted that the imprints will be hiring for several new editorial positions. Recent hires include executive editor Naomi Gibbs, editorial director Denise Oswald, ...Read More