Powell’s Books longtime chief operating officer Miriam Sontz will take over as the bookseller’s ceo, as Emily Powell relinquishes that title to “step fully into her role as the owner of Powell’s Books, focusing on the stewardship of Powell’s long-term future, health, and vitality.” She wrote in a memo to employees: “In Miriam’s 28 years at Powell’s she has held many roles — from Beaverton store manager to co-CEO. Powell’s owes much of its arc through life to Miriam — to her persistent, loving dedication to Powell’s, to bookselling, and to integrity.” Sontz says, “We are well-positioned to continue efficiencies […]
Authors
People: A New Chief Editor for OED
Chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary John Simpson will retire in October 2013, a position he has held since 1993–the seventh OED editor since Sir James Murray’s appointment in 1879. Under his leadership, over 60,000 new words and meanings were added to the dictionary. Time has a lengthy interview with Simpson on his tenure. Current editorial project director Michael Proffitt will take over as chief editor on November 1, and principal etymologist Philip Durkin will move up to join Edmund Weiner as deputy chief editor. Chief executive of Oxford University Press Nigel Portwood said: “John Simpson has made a truly outstanding contribution to […]
People, Etc.: NYT Changes Advice Lists
As of the April 28 lists, the New York Times is changing their Advice, How-To and Miscellaneous bestseller lists. The separate hardcover and paperback lists–each listing 10 positions, with another 5 “also selling” titles–are combined into a single list with 20 numbered positions. The new combined list also incorporates ebook sales along with print sales. (Up until now, the paper has noted “e-book sales for advice & how-to books, children’s books and graphic books will be tracked at a future date.”) The first iteration is dominated by food and diet books, but a new business bestseller–PL Spring/Summer Buzz Book […]
Authors and Awards
Dwight Garner profiles John le Carré in this weekend’s NYT Magazine, saying he “is still writing at something close to the top of his game.” On his May release A DELICATE TRUTH, Garner writes: “The book is an elegant yet embittered indictment of extraordinary rendition, American right-wing evangelical excess and the corporatization of warfare. It has a gently flickering love story and a jangling ending. And le Carré has not lost his ability to sketch, in a line or two, an entire character.” Also in the magazine is an excerpt from Brian Stelter‘s TOP OF THE MORNING, which publishes next week. Time magazine selects their annual list of “the 100 […]
People, Etc.
A.S.A. Harrison, 65, died April 14 in Toronto. Her debut psychological suspense novel THE SILENT WIFE will be published by Penguin Books, who said in a statement: “We are deeply saddened over the loss of a great woman and a very gifted writer.” A memorial service for longtime Knopf vp, senior editor Ashbel Green, who died last September at the age of 84, will be held in New York at Cooper Union on Thursday, April 25th at 5:00 pm in the Great Hall. A funeral for bestselling author Brennan Manning, best known for The Ragamuffin Gospel, will be held Wednesday, April 17, […]
Awards: Johnson Claims Pulitzer Prize in Fiction; Granta Best Young British Novelists 2013
A year after failing to declare a winner in the fiction category last year (bypassing 2007 Granta Best Young American novelist list member Karen Russell’s Swamplandia!, now up for an IMPAC; Denis Johson’s Train Dreams; and David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King), the Pulitzer Prize has gone back to normal, naming Adam Johnson as the winner in fiction for The Orphan Master’s Son (Random House). Finalists in fiction included The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (Reagan Arthur Books) and Nathan Englander’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank (Knopf). The winners in other book categories include: Nonfiction Devil in the Grove: […]