At this year’s National Book Awards ceremonies on November 19, the National Book Foundation will give its Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to Maxine Hong Kingston “in recognition of her outstanding achievements as a writer of fiction, memoir, and nonfiction.” Publisher Barney Rosset will receive the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. Executive director Harold Augenbraum says in the announcement, “This year’s distinguished honorees broke new ground in American literary publishing. Kingston exposed the great story of American immigration to a new, rich blend of fiction, memory, folk-tale and political idea. Rosset opened a […]
Awards
People and Prizes
* At Jossey-Bass, Karen Murphy has been promoted to senior editor for the business trade group. At Other Press, Megan Feulner has been promoted to associate publicist. Gregory Cowles has been promoted to preview editor at the New York Times Book Review. He’s been at TBR since 2004. New Regency “continues to expand and enhance its motion picture division” with new hires that include Michelle Kroes as director of feature and literary development. She will “focus on mining the literary community for film projects as well as acting as the contact for east coast talent.” Kroes has been a scout […]
Booker Shortlist Announced
What a “shock.” As usual, manufactured “surprise” is the fuel of the Booker publicity machine, as the “longlist” turns out to be a head fake for the real shortlist; Salman Rushdie and John Berger did not make the final cut nor did Tom Rob Smith’s Child 44, which served its purpose just by being held up as a possible nominee. Also left aside were the overrated Netherland by Joseph O’Neill and books by Gaynor Arnold; Michelle de Kretser; and Mohammed Hanif. That leaves your finalists of: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (Atlantic) Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture (Faber and Faber) […]
LAT Fall Books
The paper has an essay on forthcoming fall books as part of their overall fall culture guide. “If 2008 hasn’t already been the year of the spy, the fall list is going to make it so,” the piece begins. Updike, Morrison, DeMille, Gregory Maguire and Thomas Keneally all “return to old territory…. As we might expect, given the election, Fred Kaplan’s Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer is hardly the only presidential history to appear this fall…. Works in translation bring a thrill because they force a new point of view,” and the paper mentions Amara Lakhous’ “Clash of Civilizations […]
WSJ Heavy Hitters
There are no big surprises here, but that’s not the point: the WSJ touts fall releases from some of the best-known authors: Toni Morrison, Stephen King, Annie Proulx and Marilynne Robinson have new novels. So do Christopher Paolini (who wrote “Eragon”) and Candace Bushnell (“Sex and the City”). Prepublication reviews have been strong for Dennis Lehane’s “The Given Day,” a 700-page epic from the “Mystic River” author that includes characters such as Babe Ruth. The buzz is also rising for Philip Roth’s “Indignation,” the tale of a butcher’s boy in an Ohio college during the Korean War. In nonfiction, Bill […]
October Indie Next List
The Given Day: A Novel by Dennis LehaneDewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron, with Bret Witter The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson Serena: A Novel by Ron Rash American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century by Howard Blum The Other Queen: A Novel by Philippa Gregory Goldengrove: A Novel by Francine Prose Downtown Owl: A Novel by Chuck Klosterman The Forever War by Dexter Filkins A Most Wanted Man by John le CarreThe Archangel Project by C.S. Graham Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de […]