Editor-in-Chief Andrew Richard Albanese stands in this week for publishing analyst Carlo Carrenho with a review of the headlines from across the international publishing world.

By Andrew Richard Albanese, Editor-in-Chief

It’s summer, and Carlo Carrenho is enjoying some much needed time off with family, so I’ll be stepping in for the next few weeks with an abbreviated version of the Around the Book World column. Don’t fear, Carlo will be back for the August 24th edition.

In the meantime, among the headlines this week: the winners of a prestigious prize for African Literature were announced in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania last week; Russian strikes have again targeted Ukraine’s publishing industry; publishing groups in Europe denounce two attacks on a Dutch bookshop; S&S launches a new imprint aimed at self-published authors; and Bloomsbury is the first major publisher to share how much it estimates to collect from the $1.5 billion Anthropic settlement (spoiler alert: it’s a lot), which won final approval from the U.S. courts last week.

Safal Kiswahili Prize for African Literature 2025 Winners Announced

Writing Africa reports that Salim Hussein Ng’anzi and Ali Hilal Ali took this year’s Safal Kiswahili Prize for African Literature, announced in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on July 24. The prize, founded in 2014 by Dr. Mukoma Wa Ngũgĩ and Dr. Lizzy Attree, celebrates writing in poetry and prose in the Kiswahili language. “From 230 manuscripts submitted from seven countries, the judges also shortlisted nine works across three categories: fiction, poetry, and short story collections,” the report notes. “On behalf of the judges, Professor Rayya Timammy commended the 2025 entrants for the outstanding quality of their writing: ‘This undoubtedly demonstrates that literary talent in Kiswahili continues to grow and flourish at a remarkable pace.’”

Earlier this month, co-founder Lizzie Attree published a an excellent piece about the prize’s founding and its impact in Publishing Perspsectives. “Our goal was not simply to award excellence, but to make a statement: African languages deserve investment, visibility, and celebration. We wanted to encourage writers to create in Kiswahili, support translation between African languages, and demonstrate that African-language literature belongs at the center of global literary conversations,” Attree wrote. “What has been most rewarding is seeing authors emerge from relative obscurity to become respected voices within East African literature.” Congratulations to this year’s winners!

Russian Strikes Destroy 850,000 Books in Ukraine

Chytomo this week reported on a Russian missile-and-drone attack on Kyiv that destroyed a warehouse belonging to the Ukrainian publishing house #knygolove, as well as the offices of the newly established Mison publishing house, and damaged the offices of Arc.ua publishing house, and the Konvi printing facility. The good news: “no employees of the affected publishers or printing facility were injured.” However, more than 850,000 books were reportedly destroyed or damaged. Konvi reps told reporters that the attack threatened the production of textbooks ahead of the beginning of the new school year, and accused Russia of “waging war against our children’s knowledge and Ukrainian culture.”

The attacks are the latest to target the publishing industry’s infrastructure in Ukraine, with Chytomo noting that a July 2 attack on Kyiv damaged Megapolihraf printing house destroyed “approximately 800,000 BookChef books.” Yet, Ukraine’s resolve remains undamaged. “Behind every Ukrainian book, every printing house, every library stand Ukraine’s defense forces. We will rebuild the printing houses and print new books. No circulars or decrees could destroy the Ukrainian word. Nor will Russian missiles,” said Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a report in Ukrainska Pravda.

EIBF, FEP, IPA Call for ‘Solidarity’ after Dutch Bookstore Attacks

European publishing and bookselling groups this week amplified statements condemning two attacks on a bookshop in the Netherlands said to be “directly linked to its curation of books and the values it openly represents.” In a July 17 statement, the European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF) noted that the incidents involved “physical and verbal abuse,” against Fugitive Books, a bookstore in Groningen, representing the another disturbing attack on the freedom of expression.

“Bookshops are a cornerstone of democratic societies, fostering democratic dialogue by providing spaces where diverse ideas, perspectives, and worldviews can be shared, challenged, and debated respectfully,” said EIBF President, Fabian Paagman, who called for solidarity with the booksellers. And this week, the International Publishers Association (IPA) and the Federation of European Publishers (FEP) circulated statements of their own. “Bookshops are indispensable to this trinity of freedoms, and it is important that they be protected from any and all attacks,” said Jessica Sänger, Chair of the IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee. In a separate statement, FEP Director Anne Bergman-Tahon added that protecting bookshops as “spaces of freedom of expression” is “fundamental to sustain our European democracy.”

Hachette PSA Seeks to Address Decline in Kids’ Reading for Pleasure

For all the challenges facing the publishing industry, from AI to supply chain disruptions, another challenge also remains top of mind for Hachette CEO David Shelley—the decline in the number of young people reading for pleasure. Last year, Hachette unveiled its Raising Readers campaign, aimed at enlisting parents in the cause of getting young people reading. And this week, Shelley, in partnership with more than 50 organizations, announced a new public service announcement (PSA) aimed at getting parents to read to their kids.

The official Raising Readers PSA, which dropped on July 21, encouraged adults to read to children for at least 10 minutes a day. “Reading, as all of us who work with books know, is an activity that is both fun and mentally and spiritually nourishing. In fact, reading for pleasure as a child is the single most significant factor in future success,” Shelley said, in announcing the spot. “I hope that, together with our work getting free books to those who need them most, this PSA will do its bit to motivate and encourage more adults to read aloud to the children in their lives.”

S&S Announces New International Imprint Aimed at Self-Published Authors

In a release this week, Simon & Schuster announced the official launch of Simon Stream, a new hybrid imprint aimed at self-published authors. On the imprint’s website, Simon Stream is said to be “built for publishing today,” offering authors “the global reach and expertise of Simon & Schuster” and digital royalties of 50% of net receipts. The new imprint will look to “acquire and publish” books simultaneously worldwide in English across all formats via “a dynamic international acquisition strategy” which includes “an open submissions portal for aspiring authors.”

“Legions of authors have carved out huge success in the indie space, appreciating the speed and reader-focus that self-publishing offers them. But they can also gain so much from the editorial partnership, digital marketing expertise and the global reach that a publisher like Simon & Schuster can offer them,” said Victoria Pepe, Publishing Director of the new imprint, in a release. Among the imprint’s first acquisitions, the release adds, is a five-book crime series, “The Moriarty & Co. Mysteries,” from author Jack Gatland, who writes under the name Tony Lee.

A Political Chill at the Hong Kong Book Fair?

According to a release from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the 36th HKTDC Book Fair concluded on July 21, with strong participation reported despite some weather challenges at the start of the event. This year’s fair also included the inaugural ASEAN Literary Festival, as well as a professional program that included the annual International Publishing Forum and IP Roundtable, which drew more than 250 participants. Under the theme: “Reading for All in the Age of AI: Reshaping and Co-evolution,” publishers at the professional event explored how “AI could enhance reading efficiency and cultivate critical and in-depth thinking, and how cross-sector cooperation could foster a reading culture,” according to HKTDC reps.

Meanwhile, Voice of America was among multiple outlets to report that “several publishers of political books” were prevented from taking part in the fair this eyar, with others saying “they had to be cautious about what they exhibited.” According to VOA, the fair’s organizer said it did not “screen the books for sale at the fair,” but noted that this year’s fair comes after several booksellers were recently detained under a new “national security law” took effect in 2020. The report included comments from one publisher, Hillway Culture, that was rejected for this year’s fair after reportedly after garnering complaints last year for “exhibiting politically sensitive books.”

Bloomsbury to Cash in on Landmark Anthropic Copyright Settlement

According to the Guardian, Bloomsbury this week became the first major publisher to announce publicly its expected windfall from the landmark $1.5 billion deal to settle copyright infringement claims lodged by a coalition of U.S. authors against AI company Anthropic. As Publishing Perspectives reported, the settlement was given final approval by a U.S. court this week, clearing the way for payments to begin flowing.

On that score, Bloomsbury reported that it has 14,087 titles listed within the settlement. With a proposed compensation estimated at $3,000 per work (though that figure appears poised to go up given settlement participation rates), the publisher is expected to split more than $42 million with its authors—with the publisher’s share likely to surpass $21 million after attorney fees and costs. While the suit was brought by authors, U.S. judge William Alsup last year ordered publishers to be included in the class as “beneficial” copyright owners. That decision made publishers perhaps the biggest winners in the settlement (aside from the lawyers, who will receive over $101 million) with some of the largest publishers set to collect tens of millions of dollars, as Authors Alliance executive director Dave Hansen sketched out last fall.

Norwegian Bookstore Expands (Modestly) into English Language Publishing

At Publishers Weekly, Ed Nawotka reports that Prismatic Pages, “the only bookstore dedicated entirely to English-language titles in Oslo, Norway,” is expanding into publishing with an imprint, Prismatic Press, “created to serve writers who fall outside the reach of both Norwegian and international publishing houses.”  The company’s first book, published in April, was That Quiet Fog by Jay Samuel. “Samuel, who lives in Oslo, approached owner Indigo Trigg-Hauger with a manuscript that was nearly finished, and Trigg-Hauger said she was drawn to the project after reading its opening chapter,” Nawotka reports.

“The Norwegian publishers do not publish in English. It rarely happens, so there was a need to fill,” Trigg-Hauer added, noting the press’s initially modest ambitions—just one title per year for now. However, Trigg-Hauger told PW she “hopes to eventually publish Norwegian writers who have found success domestically but are ‘too niche or still too small’ to land international translation deals.”