• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Login
  • Register

Publishers Lunch

The Publishing Industry's Daily Essential Read

  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help

Lauren Myracle’s Book Is Withdrawn From the National Book Awards

October 17, 2011
By Michael Cader

After it became clear last week–in less than straight-forward fashion–that Lauren Myracle’s young adult book SHINE was erroneously named as a National Book Award finalist, the title has now been withdrawn from the competition and no longer appears on the National Book Foundation’s website.

Myracle says in a release from publisher Amulet that she “was asked to withdraw by the National Book Foundation to preserve the integrity of the award and the judges’ work” on Friday and agreed to do so. In recognition of the error and, we imagine, the sloppy process of dealing with that mistake, the NBF  “has agreed to donate $5,000 to the Matthew Shepard Foundation.” (The organization works to protect gay youth and “replace hate with understanding, compassion and acceptance.”

Publisher Susan Van Metre says in the announcement, “We are so proud of Shine, a beautiful and important book, and of Lauren, not least for her grace in such a difficult week. We strongly encourage the NBF to review their procedures for transmitting award information between the judges and the staff and to authors and the public so that a painful error like this doesn’t happen again.”

“We made a terrible mistake,” National Book Foundation executive director Harold Augenbraum told us in a brief telephone interview Monday morning. “From the very beginning we acknowledged that a mistake was made. We regret the hurt that it caused Lauren. It’s none of her doing. On behalf of the Foundation, I apologize. [Myracle’s] work is very good. what more can I say?” As to how things changed from last Wednesday, when the category expanded to include six titles, to Friday, when the Foundation asked Myracle to withdraw, Augenbraum reiterated that it was a matter of respecting the integrity of the awards process, which “goes to the idea that the judges’ choices need to be respected.”

Augenbraum denied the decision to withdraw Myracle’s nomination would have any effect on the other National Book Award categories, though he was emphatic that the current process of imparting nomination lists would change so this would “never happen again.” Finally, we asked whether recent events might result in his being asked to resign: “I can’t comment on that,” Augenbraum said.

Filed Under: Awards, Free

sidebar

Primary Free Sidebar

Login


Forgot password
Quick Pass users click here to log in
Get Full Access
The publishing industry's essential daily read

Each Publishers Lunch Deluxe subscription includes full access to our searchable multi-year archive of industry news, a nightly email reporting 10 to 50 deal transactions, and our database of industry contacts, scripts, and posting privileges.

Learn More

RSS Automat

  • Showtime Has Cancelled Completed Show Based on Lisa Taddeo's "Three Women" Before It Aired February 6, 2023 WSJ
  • In Louisville, KY, Barnes & Noble to Swap 25,000-Square-Foot Store for 7,000 Square Feet Across the Parking Lot February 6, 2023 Biz Journal
  • DA Considered Racketeering Charge Against Trump, Pomerantz Book Says February 6, 2023 NYT
  • Booktopia Borrows $12 Million (AU) For New Fulfillment Center, With Some Funding From Nash and Taurig February 3, 2023 Press Release
  • Barnes & Noble Signs Lease for 7,000-Square-Foot Store in Brunswick, ME February 3, 2023 Maine Biz
  • A Former Prosecutor Explains the Precedents On Woodward and S&S's Side February 2, 2023 The Hill
  • Author Booted From Horror Writers Association Over Racist, Transphobic Rants February 1, 2023 Daily Beast
  • Two Years Ago Netflix Settled A Lawsuit Brought by Chooseco; Now Random House Has Licensed A "Stranger Things" Choose Your Own Adventure Book February 1, 2023 PW (with no reference to the lawsuit)
  • London Book Fair Seminars to Feature Harper CEO Brian Murray, Author Colson Whitehead February 1, 2023 Show site
  • Folio Prize Shortlists Announced February 1, 2023 Prize site
© 2023 Publishers Lunch. All Rights Reserved.