At the Hugo Awards this weekend, Connie Willis won Best Novel for BLACKOUT/ALL CLEAR (Ballantine Spectra). Full List of winners The winners of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize were: Fiction: Tatiana Soli, THE LOTUS EATERS Non-Fiction: Hilary Spurling, BURYING THE BONES: Pearl Buck in China Guardian President Obama‘s summer reading list was released by the White House late last week and included two books he purchased at Bunch of Grapes bookstore in Martha’s Vineyard and three books he brought with him: The Bayou Trilogy, by Daniel Woodrell Rodin’s Debutante, by Ward Just To the End of the Land, by […]
Archives for August 2011
Imprints: Night Shade Shuts Down Pugilist Press; Freehand Books Freezes Acquisitions
Night Shade Books has shut down its dark literary fiction imprint Pugilist Press, set to launch sometime this year, and the imprint’s editor-in-chief Juliet Ulman has left the company. Night Shade publisher Jason Williams said in an email that he shut the imprint down in order to concentrate on the company’s core business. “We started working on Pugilist at the beginning of 2010, when things were much more stable than they are now. In light of the current highly unpredictable and unstable publishing environment, launching a new imprint seems like poor reasoning. Especially a literary imprint, which is probably the […]
People, Awards, Etc.
In other personnel news, Jack Palmer has been promoted to publicity and marketing manager and Molly Cavanaugh has joined as publishing assistant at The Experiment. Previously Cavanaugh worked part-time at the University of Chicago Press until her graduation from the school this past June. Michelle Rafferty has joined Soho Press as publicist. Previously she was a publicist at Oxford University Press. The CWA announced its shortlists for a number of categories, including: CWA Gold Dagger: Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin Snowdrops by AD Miller The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina The Lock Artist by Steve […]
Liberty Media Invests $204 Million in Barnes and Noble For a 16.6 Percent Stake
A day after rumors swirled that Liberty Media had stepped back from buying a 70 percent stake in Barnes & Noble, the bookseller announced Thursday afternoon that Liberty had invested an aggregate of $204 million, through the purchase of newly issued convertible preferred stock, which can be converted into 12 million shares of common stock. The purchase was for the same $17 a share as the original buyout offer – now abandoned – and Liberty will receive a quarterly dividend at an annual rate of 7.75 percent. Under the deal, which closes today, and subject to the waiting period under anti-trust […]
Vlahos Joins BISG As Executive Director on September 12
Len Vlahos will join the Book Industry Study Group as executive director, taking the position vacated earlier this year by Scott Lubeck. Vlahos has been coo of the American Booksellers Association since 2009, and has spent nearly 20 years with the organization. His last day with ABA is September 2, and he joins BSG on September 12. “All of us at ABA extend warmest congratulations to Len on his appointment as BISG’s new executive director,” said ABA CEO Oren Teicher in a statement. “To say the least, we will miss him a great deal, but we are delighted that the […]
Bookselling: Ann Patchett’s Nashville Store Signs Lease; Ivy Bookshop For Sale; And More
Parnassus Books, the Nashville bookstore co-owned by author Ann Patchett and Random House sales rep Karen Hayes, will be located in the city’s Greenbriar Village neighborhood, the same area where Davis-Kidd was located before it closed at the beginning of 2011. The 2,500-square foot store will open in October. “The location was great. I would rather thrive in a small space than shiver in a big space,” Patchett told the Tennessean. “David Crabtree (executive vice president of Brookside Properties, which owns the space) is so spectacular. Some people said we don’t want a bookstore. Bookstores are dead, but he got […]