The ABA announced a new initiative “to showcase and support favorite backlist titles,” as selected by panels of independent booksellers. Starting with the December picks, the Indie Next monthly and kids’ lists will feature the Revisit & Rediscover selections. For December’s Indie Next List, they are touting: Wild Swans, by Jung Chang (Touchstone) About Grace, by Anthony Doerr (Scribner) Lost in the City, by Edward P. Jones (Amistad) The January 2016 list features: Plainsong, by Kent Haruf (Vintage) The Devil’s Highway, by Luis Alberto Urrea (Back Bay Books) Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese (Vintage) And February will highlight: The Fire Next Time, […]
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People, Etc.
Longtime vp, director of publicity at Viking Penguin Carolyn Coleburn is stepping aside from her duties on December 1. She will take on the new role of vp, executive publicist, in order to “allow her to concentrate her full-time energies and expertise on individual publicity campaigns, while allowing more flexibility with the commute between her home in Philadelphia and our Hudson Street offices.” Succeeding Coleburn as director of publicity on December 1 is Lindsay Prevette, about whom Brian Tart said in the announcement: “She is highly respected by, and collaborative with, editors, authors, media, and booksellers. I am looking forward […]
Bookselling: Barnes & Noble To Close Downtown DC Location; Sherman’s Buys Maine Coast Book Shop; and More
Barnes & Noble will close its downtown Washington, DC location by the end of the year, the Washington City Paper reported. Company vp, development David Deason told the paper: “Despite our best efforts to come to an agreement with the property owner to extend the lease, they have decided to move forward with another tenant and the store will close at the end of December.” Maine Coast Book Shop and Cafe has a new owner in Sherman’s Books & Stationery’s Jeff Curtis, who will make the store the sixth location of Sherman’s as of January 1. “Putting what amounts to […]
People: Alexievich Wins Nobel, and More
Belarus journalist and author Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday, cited by the Swedish Academy for “her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” Though Alexievich had been installed as the bettors’ favorite over the past few weeks, she is another instance of an under-translated Nobel winner in the English language: her oral history Voices From Chernobyl (1997) was published in 2005 by Dalkey Archive Press and then in paperback the next spring by Picador — and the book (with Keith Gessen’s translation) won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Earlier, Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the […]
Bookselling: Patterson Bonuses, New McNally Jackson Planned
James Patterson’s latest set of rewards for independent booksellers will come in the form of $250,000 in “holiday bonuses” to selected employees of ABA stores, ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 per winner. The FAQ explains: “It could be that this bookseller recommended one of your favorite books this year. Maybe they were responsible for an incredible book event or developed a new program at the store. They might stay late every evening to keep the store in top shape or consistently go above and beyond the call of duty. James Patterson wants to reward bookstore employees who are making a difference in […]
People, Etc.
At Doubleday, Michael Goldsmith has been promoted to publicity manager, reporting to Todd Doughty. Journalist and author of 18 books Phil Patton, 63, died last week from complications of emphysema. Nantucket author of DEAR MR. JEFFERSON and several historical novels Laura Simon, 66, died last Friday. Forthcoming The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has commissioned translations into modern English of all of Shakespeare’s plays, and intends to have those new versions ready to perform on stage in three years. John McWhorter makes the case in the WSJ for what Conrad Spoke calls a “revolutionary 10% translation” that enables “every student to make contact with the original text.” […]