After declining media requests for comment about his controversial remarks at the National Book Awards gala, Daniel Handler posted a modest apology on Twitter around noon on Thursday: “My job at last night’s National Book Awards #NBAwards was to shine a light on tremendous writers, including Jacqueline Woodson…and not to overshadow their achievements with my own ill-conceived attempts at humor. I clearly failed, and I’m sorry.” By early Friday morning Handler expanded that to a bigger admission: “My remarks on Wednesday night at #NBAwards were monstrously inappropriate and yes, racist.” He added, “It would be heartbreaking for the #NBAwards conversation […]
Awards
Klay, Osnos Top National Book Award Winners
As in previous years, the move towards added visibility and greater recognition resulted in a mixture of expected and surprise National Book Award winners Wednesday night. Phil Klay won the fiction prize for his debut short story collection REDEPLOYMENT, something of a surprise (most especially for the author, who only prepared a speech upon his wife’s urging.) “I spent 13 months in Iraq working with an exceptional group of Marines… and I came back not knowing what to think,” Klay said. “For me, writing this book…I can’t think of a more important conversation to be having. War is too strange […]
People, Etc.
Erin Stein will join Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group as publisher of a new, yet-to-be-named new imprint on December 1, reporting to Jon Yaged. Her imprint will focus on branded publishing and new content creation, as well as acquiring original commercial fiction and picture books. Previously she was editorial director of branded, licensed, and media tie-in publishing for Little, Brown Children’s. “MCPG has enjoyed fabulous growth over the past several years, and we are always exploring new ways to accelerate our growth. Erin’s phenomenal track record with licensed publishing and new content creation makes her the perfect fit for us. I could not be […]
Holiday Picks From Barnes & Noble; Governor General’s Awards; and More
The Governor General’s Literary Award announced winners in a number of categories this morning, with THE BACK OF THE TURTLE by Thomas King taking the prize for fiction and THE END OF ABSENCE by Michael Harris winning for nonfiction. Barnes & Noble announced its top books for the holiday season in fiction, nonfiction, young adult, and children’s, choosing from “personal recommendations and customer favorites”: Fiction All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett Gray Mountain by John […]
People
Courtney Young will join Riverhead in December as executive editor. She has been senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and also worked previously at Penguin’s Portfolio, Current, and Sentinel imprints. Jessica Wong will join Nelson Books as senior acquisitions editor on November 24, filling the role previously held by Joel Miller. Lisa Kaufman will step down as marketing director and senior editor of Public Affairs after more than 17 years at the imprint. Her last day is November 28, and publisher Clive Priddle said in the announcement “we are profoundly grateful, and we are fortunate that Lisa will continue to work with some of her […]
“Predicting” the National Book Awards
Last month BookVibe took credit for “predicting” the Booker Prize winner and promised to return with a set of forecasts for the National Book Awards. The company monitors and evaluates Twitter discussions, which is an interesting dataset for certain things, that it can’t possible tell you conclusion five judges together in a room will come to, which is how the NBAs are decided. But maybe you can take it as an indication of where influential online readers are leaning, if they had the vote. In their assessment, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and Station Eleven by Emily […]