Under Pressure

A law firm founded by White House official Stephen Miller is pushing the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate Penguin Random House’s DEI policies and programs for “race- and sex-based discrimination,” filing its complaint just one day after PRH motioned to dismiss President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the publisher. Trailblazing graphic novel publisher NBM has been acquired by Portland, Ore.–based comics press Ablaze. Publishing sales continued to recover from their summer slump in October, and the National Book Critics Circle Awards longlists have been announced. We’re spotlighting our penultimate PW Notable, Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger. Plus, we reported from this year’s Guadalajara International Book Fair, where the movers and shakers of Spanish-language publishing strategized for the future. And books won’t be included in the E.U.’s deforestation regulations after all. The hedge fund that owns Barnes & Noble and Waterstones is looking to list the bookstore chains on the stock market, reports the Financial Times—less than a month after CEO James Daunt called an IPO “an inevitability.” Netflix is adapting Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods, with Moore serving as co-showrunner, per Variety. And on the heels of the success of HBO’s Heated Rivalry adaptation, the Wall Street Journal explores how “hockey romance” became a publishing phenomenon.