Name of the Game

Children’s author Kwame Alexander is starting his own eponymous imprint at Sourcebooks, which will publish titles for all ages beginning next spring. At Gibbs Smith, Michelle Branson has been tapped to succeed longtime president and publisher Suzanne Taylor, who is retiring in August. Next year’s London Book Fair will revive its Market Focus program to spotlight the Japanese publishing industry, which fair director Emma Lowe said has become a major force in foreign book sales. Ingram and the ALA are teaming up on a new professional development program for librarians. And for our Publishing Pride series, we chatted with YA authors Aiden Thomas and Andrew Joseph White about writing for queer youth and the LGBTQ+ books that shaped them. In other news, this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair will create a dedicated space for children’s and YA publishers as part of a wider restructuring of the fair’s hall, per the Bookseller. For the Wall Street Journal, Pamela Paul traces Theo of Golden’s unlikely journey from self-published novel to massive bestseller. Actor and comedian Danny McBride talks with the Ringer about his debut story collection, out now from Random House. And the trailer for Practical Magic 2, based on Alice Hoffman’s 2021 novel The Book of Magic, just dropped.