The Los Angeles Times announced book prize finalists in 11 categories — including a new award for autobiographical prose named in honor of Christopher Isherwood — with the winners to be named April 21. Thomas McGuane will receive the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. Among the nominees are:
Fiction
Garth Greenwell, What Belongs to You (FSG)
Adam Haslett, Imagine Me Gone (Little, Brown)
Lydia Millet, Sweet Lamb of Heaven (Norton)
Zadie Smith, Swing Time (Penguin Press)
Dana Spiotta, Innocents and Others (Scribner)
First Fiction
Sara Baume, Spill Simmer Falter Wither (HMH)
Mark Beauregard, The Whale (Viking)
Nathan Hill, The Nix (Knopf)
Idra Novey, Ways to Disappear (Little, Brown)
Rebecca Schiff, The Bed Moved (Knopf)
Current Interest
Svetlana Alexievich (translated by Bela Shayevich), Secondhand Time (Random House)
Matthew Desmond, Evicted (Crown)
Jane Mayer, Dark Money (Doubleday)
Ben Rawlence, City of Thorns (Picador)
Robert F. Worth, A Rage for Order (FSG)
History
Masha Gessen, Where the Jews Aren’t (Schocken)
Adam Hochschild, Spain in Our Hearts (HMH)
Nancy Isenberg, White Trash (Viking)
Benjamin Madley, An American Genocide (Yale University Press)
Heather Ann Thompson, Blood in the Water (Pantheon)
In personnel news, Eliza Swift has joined Albert Whitman as editor. Previously, she was associate editor at Alloy Entertainment.
Little, Brown announced a number of recent promotions. Bill Robinson has been promoted to director, brand development, while Erinn McGrath moves up to associate director of publicity, James Patterson. Sabrina Benun has been promoted to senior marketing manager, while Sean Comstock moves up to marketing associate. Shawn Sarles has been promoted to sales & marketing analyst. Finally, Florence Yue moves up to senior art director.
Bookselling
Books, Inc. will add a store in Silicon Valley in 2018, in Campbell, CA’s Pruneyard Center, which will be their 12th location. The bookseller also said that they will relocate their Mountain View store early this summer, moving from 301 Castro Street to nearby 317 Castro Street. The new store will have an author event space, and a larger children’s section.
Forthcoming
Melville House will issue a paperback edition of the farewell speeches of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, on March 28. The publisher was inspired by a similar publication created by the Harvard Bookstore, printed on their on-demand machine. Melville House co-publisher Dennis Johnson says in the release, “The only payment the store asked for was that we make a donation to the ACLU.” There is the question of rights to Mrs. Obama’s words, however. (Speeches given by Federal employees, including the president, are considered Federal works and are in the public domain. The first lady is not an employee and her speeches appear to be protected, though transcripts of her last speech are widely available online.)