Awards The Mystery Writers of America named authors Linda Fairstein and Martin Cruz Smith as the 2019 Grand Masters. Marilyn Stasio, the mystery critic for the NYTBR since 1988,will receive the Raven Award for “achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing.” The Ellery Queen Award honoring “outstanding writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry will go to Linda Landrigan for her work as the editor of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Honorees will be recognized at the Edgar Awards Banquet on April 25. Best of NPR has brought back its Book Concierge, featuring 319 titles. The Oregonian chose 19 titles as the best of […]
Awards
People, Etc.
Membership and marketing officer at the American Booksellers Association Meg Smith “has decided to stop working full time” following the 2019 Winter Institute in January, after almost 20 years with the organization. CEO Oren Teicher says, “Meg has become a friend to all of us, and her unstinting support of the independent bookstore community is legendary. It will be hard to imagine ABA without her.” Transatlantic Agency partner and senior agent Marie Campbell is retiring, but will remain on as an advisor to the agency. A former editor, in-house rights manager, and instructor at Ryerson University’s Publishing Program, she has worked […]
Briefs: Awards, Bookselling, and More
National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Ron Chernow will be the speaker at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 27, 2019. He said in the release, “The White House Correspondents’ Association has asked me to make the case for the First Amendment and I am happy to oblige. Freedom of the press is always a timely subject and this seems like the perfect moment to go back to basics. My major worry these days is that we Americans will forget who we are as a people and historians should serve as our chief custodians in preserving that rich storehouse […]
People, Etc.
Heather Connor has joined Harlequin in the newly created role of vp, publicity, overseeing Park Row Books, Hanover Square Press, Graydon House, MIRA, HQN, and Inkyard Press. She was previously director of publicity at Berkley. Amanda Lang has been promoted to to senior publicity manager at Simon & Schuster. Co-founder of New World Library and author of Creative Visualization Shakti Gawain, 70, died November 11 from complications related to hip surgery. (She suffered from both Parkinson’s and Lewy body disease.) New World Library publisher and co-founder (the company was first called Whatever Publishing) Marc Allen says, “She was such an extraordinary […]
National Book Awards: Nunez Wins Fiction Prize, Along with Stewart, Tawada, Reed, and More
At the National Book Awards on Wednesday evening, the fiction prize went to Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend (Riverhead). Nunez spoke only briefly in accepting the award, quoting Alan Bennett: “For a writer, nothing is ever quite as bad as it is for other people, because, however dreadful, it may be of use.” Nunez also noted that “writing books made the miraculous possible: to be removed from the world and to be a part of the world at the same time. And tonight how happy I am to feel a part of the world.” Riverhead said there are 20,000 copies of the book in print and they ordered a reprint of another 20,000. Jeffrey C. Stewart […]
Briefs
Once again, you can view a live webcast of tonight’s National Book Awards starting at 7:20 PM. The Washington Post started rolling out its best books of the year package, including their lists of 50 notable fiction and nonfiction titles. Which means their top 10 should drop soon, too. Caroline Abbey has been promoted to editorial director at Random House Children’s. Chicago Distribution Center will distribute eight new publishers, all moving over from University Press of New England which is closing at the end of the year. The publishers are: Autumn House Press, Brandeis University Press, Carnegie Mellon University Press, Dartmouth College Press, […]