Douglas Stuart’s novel Shuggie Bain (Grove/Picador) was awarded the £50,000 Booker Prize, in a virtual ceremony on Thursday afternoon. Chair of judges Margaret Busby said in part: ‘Shuggie Bain is destined to be a classic — a moving, immersive and nuanced portrait of a tight-knit social world, its people and its values…. The poetry in Douglas Stuart’s descriptions and the precision of his observations stand out: nothing is wasted.” Stuart said in his acceptance speech, “I know I’m only the second Scottish book in fifty years to have won, and that means I think a lot for regional voices, for working […]
Awards
Best of 2020: Washington Post, Amazon, and Indigo
The Washington Post released its year end books package on Thursday, including its top 10 Best Books of the 2020 list: Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson Hidden Valley Road, by Robert Kolker Memorial Drive, by Natasha Trethewey Unworthy Republic, by Claudio Saunt Vesper Flights, by Helen Macdonald The Cold Millions, by Jess Walter Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell Homeland Elegies, by Ayad Akhtar Transcendent Kingdom, by Yaa Gyasi Writers & Lovers, by Lily King The paper also published its traditional lists of 50 notable fiction and nonfiction books. Amazon also released their best books of 2020 package on Thursday, with Brittany K. […]
National Book Awards: Yu Wins Fiction, Along With Les Payne and Tamara Payne, and More
At the 71st National Book Awards on Wednesday evening, Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown (Pantheon) won the fiction prize. Roxane Gay presented the award, noting, “This has been an impossible year in almost every way. We are dealing with both a pandemic and a political climate that is terrifying and absurd.” Yu, who said he had not prepared a speech because he was so sure he would not win, spoke briefly, saying “I can’t feel anything in my body right now” and “I’m going to go melt into a puddle.” (Afterwards on Twitter, Yu remarked: “That feeling when you win a […]
People, Etc.
Annysa Polanco has been promoted to director, diversity, equity & inclusion at Penguin Random House. In the coming year, the company will add “more fully-dedicated positions” in diversity, equity & inclusions roles across the divisions, including a new “board-level DE&I leadership position” that will report directly to PRH US ceo Madeline McIntosh. Polanco will report to that new executive once the role is filled. Michael DeFazio had been promoted to vice president & executive director, production planning, analytics, and paper purchasing, Penguin Random House. Film/TV Production outfit The Mazur Kaplan Company — run by bookseller Mitchell Kaplan and producer Paula […]
People, Etc.
David Ebershoff will rejoin Random House as vice president and executive editor starting January 4. Though he reports to Andy Ward, Ebershoff “will be focusing on the Hogarth list,” while also acquiring for the Random House list. Ebersoff was previously executive editor at Random House for 20 years until 2015. At the Simon & Schuster imprint, Priscilla Painton has been promoted to vp, editorial director for nonfiction program. Reporting to publisher Dana Canedy, Painton “will work with our editors to expand, diversify, and strengthen our already stellar nonfiction list.” Hannah Phillips, Kevin Reilly, Gwen Hawkes, Alice Pfeifer, Sallie Lotz, and […]
Williams’ How to Fail at Flirting Tops December Library Reads
Denise Williams’ How to Fail at Flirting is the top pick for the December Library Reads list. Read an excerpt now in our Buzz Books 2020: Romance sampler. The rest of the list: The Arctic Fury, by Greer Macallister How to Catch a Queen, by Alyssa Cole Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder, by T. A. Willberg Pretty Little Wife, by Darby Kane This Time Next Year, by Sophie Cousens Take It Back, by Kia Abdullah Ten Rules for Faking It, by Sophie Sullivan Ten Things I Hate About the Duke, by Loretta Chase The Wrong Family, by Tarryn Fisher