Annie Proulx will receive the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the awards ceremony on November 15, honored “for her exceptional work and significant impact on American literature.” Actor Anne Hathaway (who starred in the film adaptation of Brokeback Mountain) will present the award. Proulx tells the AP, “I was astonished when first I heard that news. I simply had not thought of my various writings as a body of work that might be considered as a contribution to American letters. It almost seemed that I had been negligent in writing what I considered discrete novels […]
Awards
People, Etc.
Byrd Leavell has moved to UTA. Waxman Leavell Literary Agency will revert to its original name, Waxman Literary Agency. Azia Cheng has been promoted to ceo of Penguin Random House North Asia, reporting to Markus Dohle, effective immediately. She has been sales director there since 2008 and succeeds Helen Duan, who departed last month. The Frankfurt Book Fair announced their 16 fellows for this year. New Directions editor Tynan Kogane is the first Fred Kobrak Frankfurt Fellow, a new award that will fund one participant a year for the next ten years. Awards Canada’s big Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for […]
Awards: Whiting Will Support Nonprofit Literary Magazines
The Whiting Foundation announced a new initiative to support small nonprofit literary magazines through a program of awards, matching grants, and organizational help. Director of literary programs Courtney Hodell says in the announcement, “When literary magazines suffer, literature feels it, and when they thrive, so do writers and readers. We hope to bring more attention to their great work, and help them reach their ambitions.” The foundation says it hopes the multi-year support offered will “ignite growth.” They note, “What distinguishes this prize is the call to action built into its design: winning magazines will be encouraged to strive for […]
Kirkus Prize Nominees, FT Shortlist
The Kirkus Prize announced their award candidates in fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. The winners will be announced in a ceremony on November 2. In fiction, they nominate one Booker candidate (Hamid) and two NBA longlisted-authors (Machado and Ward). The only other point of overlap is children’s nominee Angie Thomas, also on the NBA longlist. The complete nominees: Fiction What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky, by Lesley Nneka Arimah (Riverhead) Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid (Riverhead) White Tears, by Hari Kunzru (Knopf) The Ninth Hour, by Alice McDermott (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Her Body and Other Parties, […]
Ward and Egan Lead National Book Award Fiction Longlist
The National Book Awards announced their final longlist on Friday morning, for the fiction award. (Asterisked titles have not been released yet.) Independent presses fared well, with 5 titles in contention: Elliot Ackerman, Dark at the Crossing (Knopf) Daniel Alarcón, The King Is Always Above the People: Stories* (Riverhead) Charmaine Craig, Miss Burma (Grove Press) Jennifer Egan, Manhattan Beach* (Scribner) Lisa Ko, The Leavers (Algonquin) Min Jin Lee, Pachinko (Grand Central) Carmen Maria Machado, Her Body and Other Parties: Stories* (Graywolf) Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, A Kind of Freedom (Counterpoint) Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing (Scribner) Carol Zoref, Barren Island (New […]
October Library Reads
Francesca Hornak’s novel Seven Days of Us is the top pick for October’s Library Reads list. The novel is also featured in our Buzz Books 2017 Fall/Winter sampler, available for download now. Another Fall/Winter Buzz Books title, We’re Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union, also makes the list. The other picks are: The Last Mrs. Parrish, by Liv Constantine The Last Ballad, by Wiley Cash From Here to Eternity, by Caitlin Doughty The Rules of Magic, by Alice Hoffman The Stolen Marriage, by Diane Chamberlain Uncommon Type, by Tom Hanks Strange Weather, by Joe Hill Manhattan Beach, by Jennifer Egan