Compulsive Reader

Compulsive Reader News
maggieball@compulsivereader.com
http://www.compulsivereader.com
Volume 29, Issue 2, 1 Feb 2026

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IN THIS ISSUE

New Reviews at Compulsive Reader
Literary News
Competition News
Sponsored By
Coming soon

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Hello readers. Here is the latest batch of reviews and interviews:

A review of Your Place in This World by Jake La Botz

Jake La Botz writes with a bruised, musical lyricism, capturing revelations that arrive not through grand redemption but through small, fleeting graces. His stories linger in the aftermath of failure, curious about what it means to find beauty, dignity, and purpose amid addiction, poverty, and social abandonment in Chicago’s forgotten neighborhoods. La Botz does not romanticize poverty or misfortune; instead, he demands on showcasing his characters’ humanity. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/01/23/a-review-of-your-place-in-this-world-by-jake-la-botz/

A review of Katy: The Woman Who Signed the Declaration of Independence by Betty Bolté

As well as for the fun of seeing how one person’s life fits into huge historical events, readers will relish this novel for Katy’s personal story; her loves and losses; the warmth of her relationship with her mother; her women friends’ experiences in late 18th century America. The author does a good job of including period details, creating rounded characters and balancing scenes and summary. Since 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence, Katy could not be more timely. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/01/21/a-review-of-katy-the-woman-who-signed-the-declaration-of-independence-by-betty-bolte/

A review of New Cemetery By Simon Armitage

These lines progress like steps, gently but persistently moving forward at a walking pace, keeping, as Armitage says in “Moths”, with his “frame of mind” and “length of stride” at this time of life. The overall effect is soothing and reverent, taking on the quiet progression of his subject matter, a new cemetery built near Armitage’s home in West Yorkshire. He also invites us to see each tercet as a winged moth: “two wings and a body part” or at least moth-like in the poem’s fragile diminutive nature. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/01/20/a-review-of-new-cemetery-by-simon-armitage/

100 Selected Poems by William Wordsworth

Here in these poems from the naïve and yet wisdom reply of a little girl to poems about nature or nature poems we see what William Wordsworth does so well: Mixing passion with poetic excellence, displaying poetic mastery in simple diction to give the profound and remarkable through verses that show beauty and mean something and provoke thought and entertain at the same time. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/01/19/100-selected-poems-by-william-wordsworth/

A review of The Music of Being by Jean Nordhaus

Nordhaus’s fascination with language (born of her early exposure to Yiddish) is apparent in her handling of form, and her deft orchestration of words. But it’s the use to which she puts these gifts which elevates her work, confers on it a certain authority. It is a gentle authority, capturing the reader’s attention and holding it with skill and purpose, but more than that, there’s a knowingness, a kind of wisdom that comes off the page; whispered perhaps, but evident nonetheless. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/01/17/a-review-of-the-music-of-being-by-jean-nordhaus/

A review of We Had it Coming and other fictions by Luke O’Neil

There’s a strong sense of place throughout the collection, but with the shading of resigned desperation, almost as keen as describing a memory while it is still being formed. O’Neil often points to the small tortures of acknowledging the sharpness of reality alongside and our shared passivity: “Being lied to isn’t so bad sometimes compared to being aware of how things actually are. You wouldn’t want to go around like that for very long. No one wants to know all the secrets.” Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/01/14/a-review-of-we-had-it-coming-and-other-fictions-by-luke-oneil/

A Review of The Odyssey translated by Michael Solot

As soon as I started reading Michael Solot’s translation of The Odyssey, I felt instantly connected to the text. It felt so alive, so “modern,” so contemporary, so immediate. It was like reading Homer composed in my native English. Solot uses a conversational register yet it is replete with both elevated and ordinary language with a wide, dynamic range. The story was not only clearly understandable, it was compelling, urging me onward to read to the next chapter. I have never read 400 pages so quickly! Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/01/12/a-review-of-the-odyssey-translated-by-michael-solot/

A review of Sir Thomas Browne: The Opium of Time By Gavin Francis

Francis’ impeccable prose style takes us into the cinematic tour de force of the time and ideas of Sir Thomas Browne that make us appreciate the world we live in with specialized medicine and technological advances. At the same time make us weary of the future by ending on the subject of mortality. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/01/10/a-review-of-sir-thomas-browne-the-opium-of-time-by-gavin-francis/

A review of Her Mouth A Palace of Lamps by Yamini Pathak

Her Mouth a Palace of Lamps is constructed as a sort of song, with parts corresponding to the Indian raga. After the Prelude and the poem titled “Pakad,” which is a Hindi word signifying a musical phrase, as well as a verb meaning “hold, catch, capture, cling, preserve, protect,” the collection is divided into sections relating to the raga – “Thaat,” the parent scale, “Alaap,” the invocation, a melodic improvisation that introduces the raga, and “Pakad,” which is the essence of the raga – poems that, indeed, capture and preserve memories, or not even “memories” so much as “melodies.” Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/01/09/a-review-of-her-mouth-a-palace-of-lamps-by-yamini-pathak/

A review of The Work Anxiety Poems by Alan Catlin

The first three dozen and change poems in The Work Anxiety Poems deal with the “work” aspect: poems that focus on the bar, a setting familiar to readers of Alan Catlin’s work, from his professional career in the hospitality industry. Drunks, cops, killers, lost women, lost men (“Maybe he was just another cruel / joke by God,” he starts “Good Friday”). He’s seen them all. They’re the people you’ve come to expect inhabiting Catlin’s poems. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/01/08/a-review-of-the-work-anxiety-poems-by-alan-catlin/

A review of Padre Tierra: A Poem in 50 Sections by Mariano Zaro

With each individual section of the poem carefully translated from the original Spanish, the book length poem begins within the space of a home, a room and the day, exploring the natural landscape, a setting based on Zaro’s childhood growing up in rural Northern Spain, and the interrelationship between a father and son. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/01/03/a-review-of-padre-tierra-a-poem-in-50-sections-by-mariano-zaro/

All of the reviews and interviews listed above are available at The Compulsive Reader on the front page. Older reviews and interviews are kept indefinitely in our extensive categorised archives (currently at 3,662) which can be browsed or searched from the front page of the site.

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LITERARY NEWS

Hello readers, in the news this month, longlists have been released in six categories for the National Book Critics Circle Awards. Finalists will be revealed on January 20 and winners named at an awards ceremony in New York City on March 26. See the complete longlists here: https://www.bookcritics.org/awards/

Author Richard Osman and Pan Macmillan CEO Joanna Prior were awarded OBEs in the UK’s New Year’s Honours list. Osman’s award was for services to literature and broadcasting, and Prior’s was for services to publishing and literacy. Among the 1,155 other honours recipients were Lucy McCarraher, author and founder of the Business Book Awards, who was awarded an MBE for services to publishing and to diversity. Math teacher, broadcaster, and writer Bobby Seagull was awarded an MBE for services to public libraries, and David Robinson, co-founder of the Discover Children’s Story Centre, was awarded a knighthood for services to social innovation. Recipients included Wicked star and author Cynthia Erivo, who received an MBE for services to music and drama; actor Idris Elba, who was awarded a knighthood for services to young people; and actor and comedian Meera Syal, who was awarded a damehood for services to literature, drama, and charity.

On a similar note, Authors Michelle Good and Ziya Tong were among the 80 new appointees to the Order of Canada, which were announced on December 31. Gov. General Mary Simon’s office named six new companions, the highest level of the Order of Canada; 15 officers; and 59 members, the introductory level in the order. Good and Tong were both appointed as members. Good is a Cree writer and retired lawyer, as well as a member of Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. She was appointed for her work towards “reconciliation, truth and respect” through her writing, activism and practice as a lawyer. Her debut novel, Five Little Indians, won Canada Reads 2022, as well as the 2020 Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction. She is also the author of Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada. Tong, an author, broadcaster, filmmaker and science journalist, was appointed for her commitment to improving animal rights through media and education. She won Canada Reads in 2019, defending Max Eisen’s memoir By Chance Alone, and published her first book, The Reality Bubble: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths, and the Dangerous Illusions that Shape Our World, in that same year. The book was on the 2020 RBC Taylor Prize shortlist and won the 2019-2020 Lane Anderson Award for science writing in Canada. Also appointed members of the Order of Canada were Toronto children’s author Elizabeth MacLeod, who has written more than 70 nonfiction titles, including the Scholastic Canada Biography series about influential Canadians, and Quebec writer and professor Hans-Jürgen Greif, who writes in French, for his contributions to literature, teaching, and cultural exchanges.

Winners have been named for the Pacific Northwest Book Awards, sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and selected by a committee of indie booksellers. These include: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (Knopf), Seattle Samurai by Kelly Goto (Chin Music Press), Sinkhole, and Other Inexplicable Voids by Leyna Krow (Penguin Books), Speechless by Aron Nels Steinke (Scholastic), Wrecked by Coll Thrush (University of Washington Press), and The Antidote by Karen Russell (Knopf).

BC Books has released a longlist for Canada Reads 2026, which is “looking for one book to build bridges. Stories connect us to different people, places and perspectives. The collection of titles for 2026 showcase the power storytelling has to inspire, connect and grow—together.” For Canada Reads, five Canadian celebrities each pick one book they believe all Canadians should read, then debate their choices over the course of four days, voting to eliminate one every day. The last book standing is the winner. Every year, CBC Books reveals a longlist before the final contenders are named. Canada Reads will air this year’s edition from April 13 to 16. See the longlisted titles: https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/canada-reads-2026-longlist-9.7029177

Marilyn Booth has won the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation for her translation of Honey Hunger by Zahran Alqasmi (Hoopoe Fiction/the American University in Cairo Press). The prize is administered by the Society of Authors and has an award of £3,000.

The Australian independent booksellers have nominated their favourite Australian books of 2025 and announced the shortlist for the Indie Book Awards 2026. Announced early in the award calendar year, The Indie Book Awards are now considered the forerunners of all major Australian book awards. The Shortlist for the Indie Book Awards 2026 includes, for fiction,Tenderfoot by Toni Jordan (Hachette Australia), Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (Penguin Australia), One Hundred Years of Betty by Debra Oswald (Allen & Unwin), and Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth (Macmillan Australia). For nonfiction, Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks (Hachette Australia), The Mushroom Tapes by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper & Sarah Krasnostein (Text Publishing), Always Home, Always Homesick by Hannah Kent (Picador Australia), and A Bunker in Kyiv by John Lyons (ABC Books, HarperCollins Australia). For debut fiction, The Butterfly Women by Madeleine Cleary (Affirm Press), Daughters of Batavia by Stefanie Koens (HarperCollins Australia), Melaleuca by Angie Faye Martin (HQ Fiction), and When Sleeping Women Wake by Emma Pei Yin (Hachette Australia). For the full set of lists visit: https://www.indiebookawards.com.au/post/shortlist-announced-for-the-indie-book-awards-2026 The Category Winners and the Overall Book of the Year Winner will be announced at a virtual awards event on Monday 23 March 2026.

The Mystery Writers of America has announced recipients of its Grand Master, Ellery Queen, and Raven awards. They will be honoured on April 29 at the 80th annual Edgar Awards Ceremony in New York City. Donna Andrews and Lee Child are the 2026 Grand Masters, representing “the pinnacle of achievement in mystery writing and was established to acknowledge important contributions to this genre, as well as for a body of work that is both significant and of consistent high quality,” the MWA noted. The Raven Award, which recognises outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing, will be presented to Book Passage in Corte Madera, Calif. John Scognamiglio of Kensington Books will receive the Ellery Queen Award, which honours “outstanding writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry.”

Finalists for the Story Prize are Other Worlds by André Alexis (FSG Originals), Atavists by Lydia Millet (W.W. Norton), and Long Distance by Ayşegül Savaş (Bloomsbury Books). The winner receives US$20,000 and runners-up receive US$5,000. The winner will be announced March 31 at a private event that will be livestreamed and will feature readings by and interviews with the finalists, before the winner is revealed.

Finalists have been selected for the 2026 Philip K. Dick Award, organised by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust. The award is for “distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the U.S. during the previous calendar year.” First prize and any special citations will be announced on April 3 at Norwescon 48, which sponsors the award ceremony. The finalists: Sunward: A Novel by William Alexander (Saga Press), Outlaw Planet by M.R. Carey (Orbit), Casual by Koji A. Dae (Tenebrous Press), The Immeasurable Heaven by Caspar Geon (Solaris), Uncertain Son and Other Stories by Thomas Ha (Undertow Publications), Scales by Christopher Hinz (Angry Robot), and City of All Seasons by Oliver K. Langmead and Aliya Whiteley (Titan Books).

Winners have been unveiled in four categories for the Nero Book Awards, celebrating exceptional writing by authors in the U.K. and Ireland. Sponsored by Caffè Nero, the prizes are run in partnership with the Booksellers Association and Brunel University London. This year’s Nero Book Awards category winners are: Fiction: Seascraper by Benjamin Wood, Nonfiction: Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry, Debut fiction: A Family Matter by Claire Lynch, and Children’s fiction: My Soul, A Shining Tree by Jamila Gavin. From these four category winners, one book will be selected as the overall winner and recipient of the Nero Gold Prize for Book of the Year, to be named March 4 in London. The overall winner receives £30,000, while the other category winners get £5,000 each.

Shortlists have been released for the 2025 Chytomo Award, which is “aimed at highlighting those who are transforming Ukraine’s publishing industry and making Ukrainian literature increasingly visible worldwide.” The International Renaissance Foundation is the main partner of the award, which is also held in cooperation with the Frankfurt Book Fair. The category winners, who will be named January 29 in Kyiv, each receive UAH 150,000. See the complete shortlists here: https://chytomo.com/en/chytomo-award-2025-announces-its-shortlist/

The US chapter of the International Board for Books for Young People (USBBY) has chosen its 2026 Outstanding International Books List featuring “exceptional titles for children and young adults published in 2025” that originated or were first published in another country. To see the list of the 41 titles, which come from 24 countries, and are listed by age category, click here: https://www.usbby.org/2026oib.html

The Mystery Writers of America has announced the nominees for the 80th annual Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honouring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction, and television published or produced in 2025. The awards ceremony, celebrating the 215th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, will be held on April 29 in New York City. To see the full and extensive list of Edgar nominees, click here: https://mysterywriters.org/2026-edgar-award-nominations/

Winners have been selected for the Sydney Taylor Book Award, sponsored by the Association of Jewish Libraries and recognising “books for children and teens that exemplify high literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience.” This year’s winners are: Gold Medalists Picture Book: Shabbat Shalom: Let’s Rest and Reset by Suzy Ultman (Rise x Penguin Workshop/PRH), Middle Grade: Neshama by Marcella Pixley (Candlewick), Young Adult: D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T. by Abby White (Arthur A. Levine/Levine Querido). See the five Silver Medalists and nine Notable books here: https://jewishlibraries.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/2026-Winner-List.pdf

The longlist has been released for the £20,000 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize, recognising “exceptional literary talent aged 39 or under, celebrating the international world of fiction in all its forms including poetry, novels, short stories, and drama.” See the full longlist here: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/dylan-thomas-prize/2026-longlist/ A shortlist will be unveiled March 19 and the winner named May 14, on International Dylan Thomas Day, during an evening ceremony in Swansea.

Wellwater by Canadian poet Karen Solie has won the £25,000 T.S. Eliot Prize, sponsored by the T.S. Eliot Foundation and “awarded annually to the author of the best new collection of poetry published in the U.K. and Ireland.”

Kaplan’s Plot by Jason Diamond (Flatiron Books) has won the $1,000 2026 Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) Jewish Fiction Award, honouring “works of fiction originally written in or translated into English with significant Jewish thematic content published in the U.S. in 2025.” Three honour books were also recognised: Sisters of Fortune by Esther Chehebar (Random House), Fagin the Thief by Allison Epstein (Doubleday), and The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez (Tor Books).

The longlist for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, United States and Canada, has been selected. The prize awards a total of $35,000 and honours the “commitment of small presses to exceptional works of literary merit.” The shortlist of five titles will be announced on February 24, with the winner announced on March 10. Of the $35,000 prize, $2,000 will go to each press with a longlisted title while an additional $3,000 will go to each of the five shortlisted titles. The $3,000 will be split equally between publisher and author, or publisher, author, and translator. For the full longest visit: https://www.republicofconsciousnessprize-usa.com/

Patricia Grace King has won the 2026 Drue Heinz Literature Prize for her short story collection Those Who Vanish. She receives $US15,000, publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press (in September), and support in the international promotion of the book. The award is open to authors who have published a book-length collection of fiction or at least three short stories or novellas in commercial magazines or literary journals.

Amor Tibon won the £4,000 Wingate Literary Prize, which honours “the best book, fiction or nonfiction, to convey the idea of Jewishness to the general reader,” for The Gates of Gaza, the Bookseller reported. The award is run in association with the Jewish Literary Foundation.

Finally, finalists have been chosen for the Audie Awards, which recognises “distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment” and is sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association. Winners will be announced at a celebration on March 2 in New York City. This year’s awards include four new categories: adaptation/original work, ensemble performance, new voice, and production & sound design. To see the nominees in all 27 categories, click here: https://www.audiopub.org/audies-finalists-2026-pr

Have a great month.

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COMPETITION NEWS

Congratulations to Carol Brown who won a copy of Behind The Four Walls by Yasmin Angoe.

Congratulations also to Ian Yates who won a copy of The Woman in the Ship by Sapphira Olsen.

Our new giveaway is for a copy of Adelaide: Painter of the Revolution by Janell Strube. To win, send me an email at maggieball@compulsivereader.com with the subject line “Adelaide” and your postal address in the body of the mail.

We also have a copy of Slipstream by Kristyn Saunders. To win, send me an email at maggieball@compulsivereader.com with the subject line “Slipstream” and your postal address in the body of the mail.

Good luck!

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