The National Book Critics Circle Awards went to:
A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan (Fiction)
The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson (General Nonfiction)
How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell (Biography)
Half a Life, by Darin Straus (Autobiography)
One with Others, by C.D. Wright (Poetry)
Lyric Poetry and Modern Poetry — Russia, Poland, and the West, by Claire Cavanaugh (Criticism)
NBCC Release
Online comedy video site Funny or Die will start a line of books under the banner of Funny or Die Books, starting this July with an e-book of celebrity satire by Mike Sacks and the Pleasure Syndicate. It will operate akin to a book packager, where they will solicit original works of humor, edit them with the help of an editor and a “cross-platform consultant” working with the company’s agency, CAA, and shop to appropriate publishers.
NYMag
Orion Children’s Books will debut a new YA imprint, Indigo, that will publish four titles a month starting in September. Fiona Kennedy will be publisher of the imprint, working with commissioning editors Amber Caravéo, also of Orion Children’s Books, and Gillian Redfearn of Gollancz.
At Harper UK Jamie Cowen has been appointed as commissioning editor for men’s thriller and adventure novels, a newly created role, starting on April 4. Previously he was a contracts manager.
Jason Pinter is no longer an agent at The Waxman Agency.
Children’s book agent and United Agents co-founder Rosemary Canter died of cancer this morning in London. She started her career in 1972 at Penguin Books on the adult trade side before moving into children’s fiction, with stints at Macmillan and Methuen where, in 1987, she launched their teen paperback list. Canter joined PFD as an agent in 1989 before leaving to help found United Agents in 2008. The funeral will be held on Friday 18th March in London and details can be obtained from United Agents’ children’s agent Jodie Marsh. A memorial service will be announced later in the Spring and a full obituary will appear in due course.