A former director of the Harlem Writers Guild, Grace F. Edwards published her first novel when she was 55, and her first mystery, featuring a stylish female ex-cop turned sleuth, when she was 64. She died on Feb. 25 at Downstate Hospital in Brooklyn receiving little fanfare according to Penelope Green from the NY Times… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

Though she began writing at age 7, Grace F. Edwards waited until she was 55 to publish her first novel. That book, “In the Shadow of the Peacock,” was a lush portrayal of Harlem during World War II, a girl’s coming-of-age story set against the race riots of the time.

It was a placeholder for the six detective stories she would later write, mysteries set in Harlem starring a female cop turned sociologist and accidental sleuth named Mali Anderson, always with a backbeat of jazz. The first of these, “If I Should Die,” was published in 1997, when Ms. Edwards was 64.

She was 87 when she died on Feb. 25 at Downstate Hospital in Brooklyn, her death receiving little notice at the time. Her daughter, Perri Edwards, who confirmed the death, said she had had dementia for three years.

In the late 1960s, Ms. Edwards and a friend ran an Afrocentric dress shop selling dashikis and stylish caftans of their own designs and those of others near West 140th Street and Seventh Avenue (now called Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard). They called the store Neferti, for the African queen (intentionally misspelling the name because another business had taken the correctly rendered one, Nefertiti).

By 1974, Ms. Edwards was a disability analyst in New York State’s social services department, having earned a bachelor’s degree from City College the year before and a master’s of fine arts a few years later.

In her first novel, she wrote of the neighborhood she loved, and its vanished characters:

“The women and the old men gathered for comfort where folks were known to do the most talking: The women drifted into Tootsie’s ‘Twist ‘n’ Snap Beauty Saloon,’ where the air was thick with gossip and fried dixie peach. The men congregated in Bubba’s Barber Shop to listen to orators, smooth as water-washed pebbles, alter history with mile-long lies.”

Read full post on the New York Times

“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling is again under fire for comments about the transgender community, according to Hannah Yasharoff from USA Today… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

Less than six months after the writer was slammed for showing support for Maya Forstater, a researcher who lost her job at a think tank for stating that people cannot change their biological sex, J.K. Rowling made a similar stir in criticizing a headline on the website devex.com. The op-ed piece included the phrase “people who menstruate” in an effort to be more inclusive.

“I’m sure there used to be a word for those people,” Rowling tweeted Saturday. “Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”

After facing backlash, Rowling, 54, stood her ground, claiming her life “has been shaped by being female” and defended the exclusionary comments while arguing she still supports transgender people.

“I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives,” she wrote in a series of tweets. “It isn’t hate to speak the truth … I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so.”

Mark Hutchinson, Rowling’s representative, told USA TODAY she would not be commenting further.

Read full post on USA Today

In support of the global protests that are currently being held against police brutality and racism, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Jason Reynolds and fellow children’s authors and activists Kwame Alexander and Jacqueline Woodson are leading the #Kidlit Rally for Black Lives, a virtual gathering of more than 25 authors, artists, and publishers… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

Hosted by The Brown Bookshelf, it will take place live on Thursday, June 4, beginning at 7 p.m. ET, on the blog’s Facebook page. Following a rally addressing young people in grades K–12, participants will hold another event at 7:45 p.m. geared toward gatekeepers: parents, teachers, and librarians.

In a statement, the organizers said they envision the program as a way for families and members of the children’s book community “to unite in support of Black lives, speak to children about this moment, answer their questions, and offer ideas about steps we can all take going forward.”

Read full post on Publishers Weekly

You deserve to be able to binge read! Today’s the last chance to grab this $5! Spend $20 on any eBooks by May 28. Get $5 back in eBook credit to spend on any eBooks. Click image below:

According to Daniel Lewis from the New York Times, Larry Kramer, the noted writer whose raucous, antagonistic campaign for an all-out response to the AIDS crisis helped shift national health policy in the 1980s and ’90s, died on Wednesday morning in Manhattan. He was 84….  Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

Larry Kramer‘s husband, David Webster, said the cause was pneumonia. Mr. Kramer had weathered illness for much of his adult life. Among other things he had been infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, contracted liver disease and underwent a successful liver transplant.

An author, essayist and playwright — notably hailed for his autobiographical 1985 play, “The Normal Heart” — Mr. Kramer had feet in both the world of letters and the public sphere. In 1981 he was a founder of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the first service organization for H.I.V.-positive people, though his fellow directors effectively kicked him out a year later for his aggressive approach. (He returned the compliment by calling them “a sad organization of sissies.”)

He was then a founder of a more militant group, Act Up (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), whose street actions demanding a speedup in AIDS drugs research and an end to discrimination against gay men and lesbians severely disrupted the operations of government offices, Wall Street and the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

“One of America’s most valuable troublemakers,” Susan Sontag called him.

Even some of the officials Mr. Kramer accused of “murder” and “genocide” recognized that his outbursts were part of a strategy to shock the country into dealing with AIDS as a public-health emergency.

Read full post at the New York Times

According to Alison Flood from The Guardian, JK Rowling is to publish a new children’s book, a fairy tale “about truth and the abuse of power” that she has kept in her attic for years, for free online for children in lockdown….  Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

The Ickabog, which is set in an imaginary land unrelated to any of JK Rowling’s other works, will be serialised online from Tuesday afternoon, in 34 daily, free instalments. It will then be published as a book, ebook and audiobook in November, with Rowling’s royalties to go to projects assisting groups impacted by the pandemic.

Rowling described The Ickabog as “a story about truth and the abuse of power”. It came to her “well over a decade ago”, so she stressed that it “isn’t intended to be read as a response to anything that’s happening in the world right now”.

“The themes are timeless and could apply to any era or any country,” stressed Rowling, who has been critical in recent days of the UK government’s response to the Dominic Cummings crisis. On Monday, she wrote of Cummings’ reasoning for his contentious trip to Durham: “Your wife was ill, you thought you were infectious and you’ve got a kid. Those circumstances are not exceptional. They’re commonplace.”

Read full post on The Guardian

Amazon Targets Fall for Prime Day as it Tries to Return to Pre-Pandemic Operations according John Bowden from The Hill… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

Amazon is moving its annual “Prime Day” sales event to the fall as many Americans are feeling financial pressure from the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, which has left millions jobless.

Sources familiar with the company’s decision told The Wall Street Journal that the two-day event, which features reduced prices for Amazon Prime members and results in a massive sales surge for the company, will be moved from July to September.

Amazon does not typically release profits earned on Prime Day, but the value of sales on last year’s was estimated to be around $6.1 billion.

The reason for this week’s decision appeared to be strains on Amazon’s supply chain, according to the Journal, as the company has faced shortages and slower delivery times brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Some essential goods have been unavailable, and customers have frequently faced delays.

Sources familiar with Amazon’s operations indicated to the Journal that the company’s delivery times could be slower than usual for months as a result of the pandemic.

Read full post on The Hill