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People, Awards, Etc.: Munro, Charkin, Levinson, Potter Postage, and More

October 11, 2013
By Sarah Weinman

Vintage is reprinting a total of 100,000 copies across their backlist of 14 story collections by Nobel laureate Alice Munro. Random House Canada ceo Brad Martin told the Globe and Mail, “As far as we know, we have stock of all of Alice’s active titles,” though booksellers were light on copies and ran out quickly. Indigo placed “nice, substantial orders” for fresh inventory. You can read (or hear) Munro’s short phone call interview with the prize organizers here. She said in a written statement Thursday:

“This is so surprising and wonderful. I am dazed by all the attention and affection that has been coming my way this morning. It is such an honor to receive this wonderful recognition from the Nobel Committee and I send them my thanks.

“When I began writing there was a very small community of Canadian writers and little attention was paid by the world. Now Canadian writers are read, admired and respected around the globe. I’m so thrilled to be chosen as this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature recipient. I hope it fosters further interest in all Canadian writers. I also hope that this brings further recognition to the short story form.”

Bloomsbury executive Richard Charkin was elected vice president of International Publishers Association (IPA) for a one-year term, after which he will become president, succeeding Youngsuk “Y.S.” Chi. Charkin says in the announcement: “Publishing is an honourable business. In essence, we are here to serve writers, illustrators and creative people by editing, designing, producing, promoting, selling, and collecting money on their behalf for their ideas. Authors are at the heart of our industry – novelists, poets, dramatists, textbook writers, scientists, scholars, illustrators – and IPA needs them to support us if we are to continue to invest securely for the future. “I have been extraordinarily lucky in my career to have worked in such a great industry with such great people. I am honoured to repay some of the debt I owe to that industry and to those people. I am proud to serve the global publishing family.” Joining the board along with Charkin are Eva Bonnier (Albert Bonnier), Michiel Kolman (Elsevier), Urban Meister (Cornelsen Schulverlage), and Hugo Setzer (Manual Moderno).

Lorraine Rath and Alisha Petro have both joined Weldon Owen as art directors. Rath was previously art director at Heyday Books, and Petro held the position of art director at Yoga Journal and National Geographic. Separately, as part of a restructuring at Weldon Owen, Kelly Booth has been promoted to creative director, and Roger Shaw has acquired the food and drink list in his role as vp, Publisher and now oversees their entire list.

Though it was announced months ago, Harry Potter fan sites have just noticed that the US Postal Service plans to release a Harry Potter stamp in November.

Jay Conrad Levinson, author of dozens of books on Guerilla Marketing, died Thursday. He was 80. We have not seen a formal obituary, but sometime co-author and friend Seth Godin salutes Levinson for helping to “invent the idea of the modern marketing book” but also for “living a generous life.”

It seems a bit childish, really, that the London Book Fair keeps dispatching press releases around the Frankfurt event. The latest announce Sun-mi Hwang as their “market focus author of the day” at LBF next April, where Korea will be the market focus nation. And because trade awards are such a good business in the UK, the fair is pairing with the UK’s Publishers Association to provide 12 different awards under the banner of the London Book Fair International Book Industry Excellence Awards.

Filed Under: Authors, Bestseller Radar, Book Fairs, Free, International News, Personnel

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