At Grand Central, Celia Johnson has been promoted to associate editor: “We feel she’s a star in the making.” Executive director of Anova Books Roger Huggins will leave the company at the end of July. He says, “having spent over 40 years with Batsford and most recently as Executive Director of Anova Books, I feel it is now time to move on. In the future I hope to become involved in a variety of publishing projects and importantly also to find time to enjoy my many other interests.” Abby Anderson has been named sales and subsidiary rights manager at PublishingWorks. […]
Awards
August Indie Next Picks
Labor Day: A Novel by Joyce Maynard The Girl Who Played With Fire: A Novel by Stieg Larsson The Magicians: A Novel by Lev Grossman This Is Where I Leave You: A Novel by Jonathan Tropper The Arms Maker of Berlin: A Novel by Dan Fesperman The Weight of Silence: A Novel by Heather Gudenkauf South of Broad by Pat Conroy While I’m Falling: A Novel by Laura Moriarty Sandman Slim: A Novel by Richard Kadrey Undone: A Novel by Karin Slaughter In This Way I Was Saved: A Novel by Brian DeLeeuw Of Bees and Mist: A Novel by […]
NBF Launches Campaign for Best Novel in 60 Years; "Love Dare" Climbs Another Chart; and More Announcements
Hoping to emulate the Booker of Booker’s campaign, the National Books Foundation is initiating a program to select the best novel from the past 59 years. There have been 77 National Book Award-winning works of fiction from 68 authors during that period (the contest incorporates long-retired fiction sub-categories such as best science fiction, best western, and best paperback fiction). The books will be featured, one a day, on a dedicated NBA blog, while the organization polls former winners, finalists and judges to cull a six-book shortlist. (NBF executive director Harold Augenbraum has read all 77 books, and offers comments on […]
Amazon Names Best Books for the First Half of 2009
Not waiting for the end-of-year list season, Amazon is highlight an eclectic selection of their “best books of 2009…so far.” The Top 10 overall comprise: Cheever: A Life by Blake BaileyLet the Great World Spin by Colum McCannFordlandia by Greg GrandinThe City & The City by China MievilleThe Forgotten Garden by Kate MortonBrooklyn by Colm ToibinThe Gamble by Thomas RicksSag Harbor by Colson Whiteheadand even Starbucks pick Crazy for the Storm by Norman Ollestad, and one-time Borders “make book” The Lost City of Z by David Grann Separate lists offer top tens for fiction, nonfiction, children’s and “hidden gems.” And […]
Awards
Italian author Claudio Magris, best-known for DANUBE and MICROCOSMS, has been given the annual Frankfurt Booksellers Peace Prize. The AP notes he is “often considered a contender for the Nobel prize in literature. AP In Australia, Tim Winton has won the country’s top fiction prize, the Miles Franklin Award, for the fourth time, for his novel BREATH.
People, Awards, Announcements
Michael Thomas was the surprise winner of the IMPAC Prize for his debut novel MAN GONE DOWN, published by Grove/Atlantic. The judges said: “We never know his name. But the African-American protagonist of Michael Thomas’s masterful debut, Man Gone Down, will stay with readers for a long time. Tuned urgently to the way we live now, [Man Gone Down] is a novel brilliant in its scope and energy, and deeply moving in its human warmth.” Len Vlahos has been promoted to chief operating officer at the American Booksellers Association, filling the position held by Oren Teicher before he advanced to […]