Compulsive Reader News

August 2026: latest book reviews, interviews, and literary news

Jul 31, 2026

Compulsive Reader News
maggieball@compulsivereader.com
http://www.compulsivereader.com
Volume 29, Issue 9, 1 Aug 2026

IN THIS ISSUE
New Reviews at Compulsive Reader
Literary News
Sponsored By
Coming Soon

Hello readers. Welcome to our first Substack-only newsletter. I know many of you are new (Yay - welcome!), and I’ve also brought over all my faithful subscribers from WordPress. Some of you have been here since our early days 29 years ago – what a wonderful community! Hopefully you’ll enjoy this new platform and the additional benefits it offers. I’ve opened comments so please do feel free to jump in with feedback or suggestions, particularly on our monthly competitions. I would love to know if you prefer some other way of entering than emailing me. You could, for example, just comment if you want to enter. I could also do a random draw, but I do like to make sure the books we give away go to people who want them. What do you think? In the meantime, here are the latest batch of reviews and interviews.

A review of The Rod and the Rose by John Richardson

If, as Will Shakespeare once said, all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players, then Jayadev John Richardson’s vivid and highly accessible autobiography, The Rod and the Rose lifts the curtain on a personal drama that is operatic in scale. The path of his life has formed an arc so extraordinary that we ideally need to track it from the upper circle. Don’t worry, you won’t need rose-tinted spectacles. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/27/a-review-of-the-rod-and-the-rose-by-john-richardson/

A review of Days & Chances by Joanna Klink

Klink’s writing is carefully measured, with a cadence that pulls the reader forward persistently. Strong emotions contain just enough curiosity to ground the flow. Her line breaks feel so natural, it’s tempting to forget they once had to be carefully determined. This morning, the sun still rose, but it will set tonight with more poignancy. The rain, like the stages of grief, pounds, weeps, self-sooths, and endures. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/25/a-review-of-days-chances-by-joanna-klink/

A review of Women: 20 Japanese Female Poets / 20 Waka Poems edited by Naoko Fujimoto

Juicy might seem an odd word to apply to a sophisticated layering of multiple renderings and contextual frameworks of ancient waka poetry. But through Fujimoto’s arresting haibun paragraphs, interpretive and spacious translations, and visual/graphic pieces that stand on their own right, these 20 women poets, and the eras they lived in, come to life in vivid, haunting detail. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/22/a-review-of-women-20-japanese-female-poets-20-waka-poems-edited-by-naoko-fujimoto/

A review of Brood Chamber by Annie Mairéad Hunter

One of the most powerful poems in this collection is “Whale Fall”, a poem that follows the descent of a whale as it falls to the ocean floor. As with most of the poems in this book this one works on multiple levels: literal, ecological, metaphoric, and emotional, exploring what humanity has done to the whales, created a “universe of useless things” with its hunted bodies. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/21/a-review-of-brood-chamber-by-annie-mairead-hunter/

A “Full-Feathered Companionship”: On Marjorie Maddox’s Hover Here

In her newest poetry collection, Hover Here, Marjorie Maddox rejects the harried pace of modern life while never losing track of the urgency to move closer to what matters. What matters is relationship, and these poems invite us, even beseech us, to deepen our companionship with nature, ourselves, and each other. To do so means experiencing love alongside sorrow, remembering in order to forget, and embracing the shadows while noticing the flowers. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/20/a-full-feathered-companionship-on-marjorie-maddoxs-hover-here/

An Interview with Jessica Siskin

The author of Looks Perfect talks about her new book, its characters, challenges and emotional truths, her creative transition to novelist, Instagram, the relationship between being a rice crispy artist at Misterkrisp and creating a novel, the tension between authenticity and performance online, on the humour in the book, and lots more. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/19/an-interview-with-jessica-siskin/

A review of The Land and Its People by David Sedaris

While The Land and its People may not mark a drastic departure from Sedaris’ previous musings and ruminations, it is remains funny and engaging while, at the same time, reflecting the current state of the world in quietly amusing ways. The book begins abruptly, as if in the middle of a conversation, and ends in almost the same way, leaving the impression that it could go on and on without exhausting the reader’s appetite for his remarkable storytelling. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/17/a-review-of-the-land-and-its-people-by-david-sedaris/

A review of Morphology by Erica Miriam Fabri

Fabri has an intense style that demands attention, and then turns the gawker towards love, death, poetry, bridges, rats, a child. There are themes, there is ravishing. There is grief. Moonlight and muse. Men who fail and women who confuse. The poet’s pen lingers on lines full of spontaneous turns, unexpected delights in phrasing, metaphors that form out of nowhere and lodge in the reader’s brain. You will also chuckle. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/16/a-review-of-morphology-by-erica-miriam-fabri/

A review of Krank Fuss by Andrew Upton

he initially charming tale of a chicken in search of meaning and her friend, the prophetic toad Gibby, has the feel of a children’s book complete with Rudi’s own naive drawings, until it becomes clear that this is not a book for children, but rather a serious story about war, peace, humanity’s stupidity, and the meaning of life. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/15/a-review-of-krank-fuss-by-andrew-upton/

A review of Girl Trouble by Diana Whitney

Whitney also addresses the rape of the planet, which comes from the same destructive, patriarchal impulses of greed and power. So much of the drama takes place in the youth jungle of school settings – high school, college, even middle school (junior high) and earlier. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/14/a-review-of-girl-trouble-by-diana-whitney/

Pretending a Beast: A Review of I Can Tell You the Version That Will Make You Take My Side by J Brooke

I Can Tell You the Version That Will Make You Take My Side is a powerful, necessary testament to human resilience in the face of a stifling society. The collection shows that the struggle for independent expression can be messy, even painful, but ultimately worth it. It will resonate with many people in the LGBTQIA+ community while also serving as an accessible window into a queer experience for people outside the community. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/12/pretending-a-beast-a-review-of-i-can-tell-you-the-version-that-will-make-you-take-my-side-by-j-brooke/

A review of Those Who Vanish by Patricia Grace King

While most of the stories are told in the third person, “Rubia,” “Small Country” and “The Death of Carrie Bradshaw” are first-person narratives. These stories especially go to the heart of the misunderstandings that prevail throughout this collection. “Rubia” is related by Josie, a girl who tells us she grew up “at the bottom-ass edge of Delmarva, a landscape of crab shacks and chicken farms where the only thing flat as the Chesapeake Bay in your face were the swamps at your back.” Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/10/a-review-of-those-who-vanish-by-patricia-grace-king/

A review of Something Small of How to See a River by Teresa Dzieglewicz

That importance Dzieglewicz felt to write the book resonates in the world and on the page. The reader feels it from the jump: the foreword and timeline of events — which gives the reader the necessary historical and cultural context upfront, unlike many collections — and the first poem, which takes place a year after she left camp: “though / the river is not untouched, still, it squalls with life.” Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/09/a-review-of-something-small-of-how-to-see-a-river-by-teresa-dzieglewicz/

A review of At the Mercy of the Flies by Matt McBride

The opening set of poems, like the whole book, becomes a page-turning link, from poem to poem, strengthened by the absence of explicit titles. The narrator explores his past lovers through a dream lens and expresses disappointed regret in his failure to form predictable emotions. We quickly catch on — this collection is the song of a visionary, the call of a man sorting out tough things with a jazz band jamming behind him. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/08/a-review-of-at-the-mercy-of-the-flies-by-matt-mcbride/

Literature & Me, a review essay

I’ll admit, it ruined an enjoyable afternoon’s reading to discover that romantic notions about authorship are greater villains than late-capitalistic conglomerates with their bottom lines, unexplained cancellation of contracts, shrunken advances, nonexistent promotional plans for most books, and so on. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/07/literature-me-a-review-essay/

Diving at the Moon, Poems by Kevin Gallagher

I am fascinated by what and whom Gallagher met in the 8th century, CE. Du Fu (712-770) is still considered the greatest poet. Lin Zexu (1785-1850) was a government official who held the highest Confucian ideals, intelligence, and loyalty to the country and people. He tried to end the opium trade with England. His efforts failed. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/06/diving-at-the-moon-poems-by-kevin-gallagher/

A Review of Splashed Things by Leigh Lucas

What makes Splashed Things such a strong collection is the utilization of the visual metaphor of splashes and water as an explanation for loss and grief. From poems on the physics of splashes to Doc Edgerton’s photography, Lucas returns to this again and again with grace and poise. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/05/a-review-of-splashed-things-by-leigh-lucas/

The Pioneer of Consciousness: A review of IRØNCLAD by Marc Vincenz

Within the broader canon of modern poetry, Vincenz occupies a fascinating and increasingly important position. His work emerges from traditions of surrealism, deep image poetics, ecological lyric, and international modernism, yet it also pushes beyond them into something distinctly twenty-first century: a poetics of fractured global consciousness. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/04/the-pioneer-of-consciousness-a-review-of-ironclad-by-marc-vincenz/

A review of If It’s True by April Krassner

Krassner’s playful and poignant memories seep through nibbling poems inviting the reader to find a comfortable chair and a cup of tea. If the sun is shining brightly, we’re reminded that clouds also linger — there are shadows on these floors and walls. The past is inspected and questioned. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/03/a-review-of-if-its-true-by-april-krassner/

A review of Rite of Spring by Kris Kneen

Kris Kneen new book, Rite of Spring, is delightful, strange and bizarrely sexy. The title hints at awakening and that is one of the key themes in this book, which teases and tricks the reader with its silky narration, fast plot, and the beautiful conjunction of suspense and rich inner dialogue. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2026/07/01/a-review-of-rite-of-spring-by-kris-kneen/

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 3,812!) which can be browsed or searched from the front page of the site.

LITERARY NEWS

In the news this month, The Crime Writers’ Association has announced the winners of its 2026 Dagger Awards. Among the many winners are Diamond Dagger” Mark Billingham, Gold Dagger: The Death of Us by Abigail Dean, Steel Dagger: King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby, Emerging Author Dagger: Blind Side of the Sun by Michael Nikitin, and Best Crime & Mystery Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press. To see all the winners, click here: https://thecwa.co.uk/awards-and-competitions/the-daggers/

The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association has named three new inductees into its Hall of Fame: Kelley Armstrong, bestselling and award-winning author of more than 50 books, James Alan Gardner, Aurora Award-winner, Seiun Award-winner, Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winner; Hugo and Nebula finalist, and Mike Glicksohn, First Fandom posthumous Hall of Fame inductee (2024); past president of the Fanzine Writers of America; Hugo winner. The CSFFA Hall of Fame celebrates “the best Canadian writers, editors, publishers, artists, musicians, scientists, organizers, and fans who have, over the decades, made a significant contribution to the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.” Inductees receive a plaque and have their names engraved on the permanent trophy, which has been frequently displayed at conventions and other events across the country.

UWA Publishing (Australia) has announced the shortlist for the 2026 Dorothy Hewett Award. The shortlisted works, chosen from more than 280 entries, are: “Shedding Skin” by Faiza Bokhari (WA), “Snow” by Chris Brophy (VIC), “A Bird is a Small God” by Alisha Brown (NSW), “Another Sky” by Christy Collins (VIC), “being made of stone” by Kimberley Starr (VIC), and “Milk Fever” by Coby Sullivan (QLD). The judges for the 2026 award are UWA Chair of Australian Literature Tony Hughes-d’Aeth, Night Parrot Press co-publisher Linda Martin, Zeitgeist Agency literary agent Samuel Bernard, and UWA Publishing publisher Kate Pickard. The winner will be announced in August and will receive $10,000 and a publishing contract with UWA Publishing.

The State Library of Western Australia has announced the 2026 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards Shortlist. For Fiction Book of the Year, Chance and Necessity: A Novel of Narrogin and Williams by Rosanne Dingli, When She Was Gone by Sara Foster, King of Dirt by Holden Sheppard, I Am Nannertgarrook by Tasma Walton, and O’Keefe by David Whish-Wilson. For poetry, Gold Digger by Lisa Collyer (check out Willo Drummond’s launch speech published at Compulsive Reader here: https://compulsivereader.com/2025/10/01/gold-digger-by-lisa-collyer/), The Twilight Observatory by Jennifer Kornberger, The Hum Hearers by Shey Marque, and Past & Parallel Lives by Kaya Ortiz. Find all of the shortlisted titles here: https://slwa.wa.gov.au/news/2026-western-australian-premiers-book-awards-shortlist-announced

The Sunburst Award Society released a shortlist for the C$3,000 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, which will be presented this fall. This year’s shortlisted titles are: The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes, Horsefly by Mireille Gagné, translated by Pablo Strauss, Wild Life by Amanda Leduc, The Lady, the Tiger, and the Girl Who Loved Death by Helen Marshall, and Veal by Mackenzie Nolan.

Egyptian publisher Yehia Fekry was awarded the 2026 International Publishers Association’s Prix Voltaire at a ceremony during the 35th International Publishers Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The IPA also announced a Prix Voltaire Special Award for the deceased Egyptian publisher Mohamed Hashem. The IPA Prix Voltaire comes with a CHF 10,000 prize. 2026 IPA Prix Voltaire laureate, the El Maraya for Arts & Culture was founded in Cairo in 2016. Prix Voltaire nominees are publishers – individuals, groups or organizations – who have typically published controversial works amid pressure, threats, intimidation or harassment, be it from governments, other authorities or private interests. Alternatively, they may be publishers with a distinguished record of upholding the values of freedom to publish and freedom of expression.

Jacqueline Rose has won the PEN Pinter Prize 2026, awarded annually to a writer resident in the U.K., the Republic of Ireland, the Commonwealth or former Commonwealth who, “in the words of Harold Pinter’s Nobel speech, casts an ‘unflinching, unswerving’ gaze upon the world, and shows a ‘fierce intellectual determination... to define the real truth of our lives and our societies.’ “ Rose will be honored on October 8 during a ceremony at the British Library. The award will be shared with the PEN Pinter Prize Writer of Courage 2026--selected by Rose--who is active in defense of freedom of expression, often at great risk to their own safety and liberty.

The winner of this year’s CLiPPA (Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award) is John Agard for his collection The Poetry World of John Agard, illustrated by Shirley Hottier. Presented annually in the U.K., the prize “encourages and celebrates outstanding poetry published for children.” The winner receives £1,000, a trophy, and opportunities to engage in ongoing publicity.

Literature Wales announced that A Room Above a Shop by Anthony Shapland is the winner of the 2026 Wales Book of the Year, which was created to “celebrate and platform talented Welsh writers who excel in their fields in both English and Welsh.” Mererid Hopwood was the winner of the overall Welsh-language prize with her poetry collection, Mae. See the complete list of winners here: https://www.literaturewales.org/lw-news/a-room-above-a-shop-by-anthony-shapland-is-wales-book-of-the-year-2026/

Finalists have been named for the Forward Prizes for Poetry, which include the £10,000 Forward Prize for Best Collection, the £5,000 Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection, the £1,000 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem, and the £1,000 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem--Performed. Winners of the annual awards, which celebrate new poetry in the U.K. and Ireland, will be named October 24 in London. This year’s book finalists are, for Best collection: Egrets, While War by Tishani Doshi, Foretokens by Sarah How, Hide Me Under the Blood and I Shall Be Satisfied by Keith Jarrett, Unsafe by Karen McCarthy Woolf, and Bycatch by Caroline Smith. For First collection: Sculling by Sophie Dumont, Even the Trees by Roshni Gallagher, Ground Provisions by Shauna M Morgan, The Way the Water Held Me by Catherine Redford, and October by Nur Turkmani.

Margaret MacMillan’s Peacemakers has won the £2,000 PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize “Winner of Winners,” a special anniversary edition of the award for historical nonfiction, marking its 25th and final year. Peacemakers, which explores the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, was the winner of the inaugural PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize in 2002. The award was established through a bequest from former PEN member Marjorie Hessell-Tiltman to the PEN Literary Foundation to found a prize in her name. The “Winner of Winners” was chosen from previous winners by returning judges from past years.

Rebecca Perry won the £5,000 2026 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize for her novel May We Feed the King.

Books from 13 publishers, seven languages and eight regions are among the 14 winners of English PEN’s translation awards, which are selected “on the basis of outstanding literary quality, the strength of the publishing project, and their contribution to U.K. bibliodiversity.” Find the full list here: https://www.englishpen.org/posts/news/pen-translates-winners-announced-9/

The 2026 National Biography Award shortlisted authors have been announced and include: Australian Gospel by Lech Blaine (Black Inc.), Chameleon by Robert Dessaix (Text Publishing), Max Dupain: A portrait by Helen Ennis (Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers), Groomed by Sonia Orchard (Affirm Press), Find Me at the Jaffa Gate: An encyclopaedia of a Palestinian family by Micaela Sahhar (NewSouth Publishing), and Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath by S. Shakthidharan (Powerhouse Publishing). The National Biography Award winners will be announced in mid August.

The shortlists for the 2026 Shalom Collective Australian Jewish Writer Awards have been announced, recognising outstanding Jewish writing published in 2025. I am pleased to say that I was one of the judges in this fine competition. You can read the full shortlist and learn more about each finalist here: https://www.shalomcollective.com.au/whats-on/australian-jewish-writer-awards The winners will be announced live on 3 August at the Awards Ceremony, opening night of Festival of the Spoken Word, which I’m also part of, interviewing Joanne Fedler on her beautiful book Bring Us Home From Sorrow. My session is on Tues the 4^th of August and if you are attending, please do come and say hello.

The longlist has been selected for the 2026 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. The shortlisted authors, to be announced this fall, receive $US1,000 each and will read from their work at the Center for Fiction First Novel Fête on December 4. The $US15,000 First Novel Prize winner will be named at the Center’s Annual Awards Benefit on December 8. The full longlist can be seen here: https://centerforfiction.org/book-recs/2026-first-novel-prize/

The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths won the £3,000 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, which “celebrates crime fiction at its very best” by UK and Irish authors. The £600 McDermid Debut Award went to Frances Crawford for her novel A Bad, Bad Place (with a Highly Commended going to Mel Pennant for A Murder for Miss Hortense). Both winners also receive an engraved beer cask handcrafted by one of Britain’s last coopers from Theakston’s Brewery. David Baldacci received this year’s Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award.

Sisters in Crime Australia has released a shortlist for the Davitt Awards, recognising the best crime and mystery books by Australian women. The shortlists are presented in four categories: adult fiction, nonfiction, YA, and children’s books. Winners of each category, along with recipients of additional awards for best debut and Readers’ Choice, will be named on September 12. Check out the complete shortlist here: https://sistersincrime.org.au/davitt-awards-2026/

The 13-title longlist for the £50,000 2026 Booker Prize has been released and includes authors representing seven countries and three continents. A shortlist will be announced September 22, with the authors each receiving £2,500. The winner will be named on November 9 during a ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London. This year’s longlisted Booker titles are: The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis, Switzy by Emma Cline, Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman, The End of Everything by M. John Harrison, The Disappearers by Marlon James, Black Bag by Luke Kennard, The Renovation by Kenan Orhan, May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry, The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley, The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout, John of John by Douglas Stuart, All Them Dogs by Djamel White, and The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams.

Finally, Julia Alvarez will receive the US Center for Fiction’s 2026 Lifetime of Excellence in Fiction Award, which “celebrates writers and luminaries who have significantly influenced our culture and perspective.” She will be honoured at the Center’s Awards Benefit on December 8. The author of eight novels, three books of nonfiction, five collections of poetry, and twelve books for children and young adults, Alvarez “has inspired countless readers, writers, and artists,” the center noted.

Have a great month.

COMPETITION NEWS

If you’re new here, we have great book giveaways every month. This month’s winner was LuAnn Morgan who won a copy of The Girl on the Beach by Carol Snow.

Our new giveaway is for a copy of Farhang Book Two by Patrick Woodcock. To win, send me an email at maggieball@compulsivereader.com with the subject line “Farhang Book Tow” and your postal address in the body of the mail.

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

Or...as per my note above, just comment here if you want to enter and I’ll get in contact directly for your postal address, or find some other way. However you do it, if you would like either (or both) of these books, please let me know.

Good luck!

Magdalena Ball

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