Author’s deal deep-sixed after Goodreads blunder

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/12/2023 (1021 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After creating multiple Goodreads accounts and downvoting (or “review bombing”) other authors’ books on the review website, a fantasy writer’s two-book deal has been axed, according to the Bookseller.

Self-described “space romantasy” author Cait Corrain’s debut novel Crown of Starlight was slated to be released in spring 2024 in Canada by Random House Canada and in the U.S. by Del Rey, an imprint of Penguin Random House. But some fellow authors in the science fiction/fantasy genres noticed a number of newly created Goodreads accounts up-voting Crown of Starlight and giving their books one-star reviews within a very short period of time.

In a Dec. 11 post to X (formerly Twitter), Corrain admitted to creating the accounts and downvoting other books while upvoting Crown of Starlight. The post says Corrain started a new medication in November that caused a breakdown in December, and was also “checking into an intensive psychiatric care and rehab facility” after “fighting a losing battle against depression, alcoholism and substance abuse.”

Some noted that many of the authors targeted by Corrain were writers of colour, incuding Kamilah Cole and Molly X Chang, who both have novels slated to be published in 2024.

Del Rey posted on X that they would not be going forward with Corrain’s books, while Crown of Starlight appears to also have been scrubbed from the Penguin Random House Canada website. Goodreads has since removed the one-star reviews from the accounts created by Corrain. For more, see wfp.to/jPr or to read Corrain’s statement on X, see wfp.to/jPq.

---

A pair of Manitoba authors have landed on online literary magazine 49th Shelf’s list of best books of fiction of the year.

Patti Grayson’s novel The Twistical Nature of Spoons, also published by Winnipeg’s Turnstone Press, and Lauren Carter’s story collection Places Like These are among the 26 titles chosen as best fiction books of 2023. Others on the list include Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon of the Turning Leaves, Frances Peck’s Uncontrolled Flight and Beth Ryan’s If We Caught Fire.

For the complete list see wfp.to/jPU.

---

Over at literary mag Quill & Quire, meanwhile, authors with Manitoba connections also fared well.

Their list of best books of 2023 chosen by reviewers, booksellers and publishers included two nods for Hannah Green’s Governor General’s Literary Award-winning poetry collection Xanax Cowboy as well as one each for David Bergen’s novel Away From the Dead and Manitoba-born, St. John’s, N.L.-based author Michelle Porter’s A Grandmother Begins the Story.

The entire list can be seen at wfp.to/jPt.

---

Goose Lane Editions poetry imprint, icehouse, has launched a new prize for unpublished Black, Indigenous and racialized poets.

The Claire Harris Poetry Prize is named after the late Trinidadian-Canadian poet, who published much of her work with Goose Lane. The winner will receive $1,000, a contract to publish their work with icehouse and readings in at least three Canadian cities.

The winner of the 2024 prize will be selected by poet/essayist Kazim Ali, with the award being presented every two years thereafter. For more details including on how to submit and eligibility, see wfp.to/jP5.

---

In the U.S., the National Book Foundation, Freedom Reads and the Centre for Justice Innovation have announced a new prize to be judged by currently incarcerated people in that country.

The Inside Literary Prize will see 300 incarcerated jurors — 25 judges at each of 12 prisons in six states — recieve copies of the four books in contention for the prize. Organizers will then travel to the participating prisons in early 2024 for discussions, readings and voting before announcing the winner in June.

Finalists for the Inside Literary Prize are all either 2022 National Book Award winners or finalists: Tess Gunty’s The Rabbit Hutch, Jamil Jan Kochai’s The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories, Imani Perry’s South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation and Roger Reeves’ Best Barbarian.

More on the prize can be found at wfp.to/jPZ.

books@freepress.mb.ca