Recent Man Booker International Prize winner and two-time Giller winner Alice Munro, 78, has withdrawn her just-released story collection TOO MUCH HAPPINESS from consideration for the 2009 Giller prize. Publisher Douglas Gibson says: “Her reason is that she has won twice and would like to leave the field to younger writers. In my role as greedy publisher I pointed out that the Giller Prize produces so much publicity, that even to be nominated for it is tremendous publicity. But her mind is made up on this. Alice preferred to withdraw from the competition.”Globe and Mail
Authors
Dominick Dunne Dies at 83
Dominick Dunne, the former movie producer who found a second career as a bestselling author and true crime correspondent for Vanity Fair, died earlier today at his home in Manhattan after a long battle with bladder cancer. He was 83. At the time of his death he was putting the finishing touches on his new novel Too Much Money, which Crown is scheduled to publish in December. “Crown has lost a great storyteller, chronicler, and friend in Dominick Dunne, with whom we enjoyed a more than twenty-five year association that included five best-selling novels, two collections of essays, and a […]
Ted Kennedy Dies at 77
Senator Ted Kennedy died at his home in Hyannis Port last night after a battle with brain cancer. He was 77 years old. “We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever,” his family said in a statement. Kennedy’s memoir True Compass, co-written with Ron Powers, will be published by Twelve on September 14, with a limited, leather-bound edition to come later in the month. “We are deeply saddened by today’s news,” Twelve publisher Jonathan Karp said in a […]
Book Tour Experimentation: Margaret Atwood's Road Show, Twitter Book Tours
Margaret Atwood may have promoted previous books remotely via the LongPen, but for her upcoming novel THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD she’ll be a little more ever-present. The Toronto Star reports Atwood will tour the U.S., Europe and Canada “using a live performance with original music, local actors and the author herself as narrator.” Toronto Star Atwood is also starting a tour blog and using Twitter, as is Joseph Finder, who launches a Twitter Book Tour today for his new thriller VANISHED, running for the next three days. Finder website And Simon & Schuster’s worldwide publication of Philippa Gregory’s THE […]
Summer Reading Picks from Michelle Obama, Stephenie Meyer
O Magazine collates a list of books Michelle Obama has mentioned reading: The Life of Pi by Yann MartelAlexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss Olivia by Ian Falconer Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak While Stephenie Meyer shares her summer reading list: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins and Dreamhunter & Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox (a ” really wonderful” two-book series “like nothing else I’ve ever read”)
Doubleday Calls Plagiarism Charges By Early Facebook Participant Against Mezrich "Mystifying"
Aaron Greenspan dispatched a letter to Ben Mezrich’s publishers asserting approximately 25 alleged similarities between Mezrich’s new book THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES and Greenspan’s self-published AUTHORITAS: One Student’s Harvard Admissions and the Founding of the Facebook Era. Greenspan says “he may seek a court injunction,” but at the least he wants attention–“not only to what he called copyright infringement, but also to what Greenspan says is mischaracterization and embellishment of the story behind the founding of Facebook,” the Boston Globe writes. Doubleday says in a statement, “Greenspan’s chief complaint seems to be that Ben Mezrich does not endorse his view that […]