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Canceled Story Broadcast; Canceled Signing The BBC canceled a planned radio broadcast of Hanif Kureishi’s short story Weddings and Beheadings, “describing the work of a cameraman who films the executions of western captives in Iraq.” They have been airing readings of the nominees for the National Short Story prize. The service said “the timing would not be right” given reports of a possible kidnapping of a BBC Gaza correspondent. “An important criterion when deciding whether to transmit a particular story on a difficult subject is the timing of the transmission. We do not now feel that it would be right […]

Please Note This is a travel(ing) Lunch, composed in many different places, time zones and air spaces. Typos and oddities are bound to be found. AJC Book Editor Eliminated; Community Protest Begins As first reported on the NBCC blog, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution eliminated their book editor position in a recent reorganization, though Teresa Weaver was invited to apply for a job elsewhere at the newspaper. “It’s not clear what the fate of the book page will be — whether it’ll be reassigned to an existing editor, whether it will go entirely to wire copy, or whether it will be removed […]

Better In Beige So it turns out, all previous Reed studies notwithstanding, that people like spring, and it’s a good time to come to London for business. The good weather and abundant blossoms of lilac and cherry and profusion of other colors and smells is just another bonus. It turns out that people like having the book fair in the same basic part of central London, in the same type of space as Olympia, only larger and with more amenities (including everything from “salt beef carvery” and a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream stand to short taxi cab lines manned […]

Pulitzers and More Prizes Among publishers, Knopf was the big winner with three awards (fiction, history and general nonfiction): Fiction: THE ROAD, by Cormac McCarthy History: THE RACE BEAT, by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff Biography: THE MOST FAMOUS MAN IN AMERICA, by Debby Applegate Poetry: NATIVE GUARD, by Natasha Trethewey Nonfiction: THE LOOMING TOWER, by Lawrence Wright They used to announce the (yawn… ) Orange Prize longlist at the London Book Fair. (Longlist is British for a collection of books we like that won’t win, except for one.) Now, with the April timing of the fair, it’s shortlist time […]

Tenet Angry; Will Take On Cheney Author and Washington Post columnist David Ignatius has some “special knowledge” of what’s in the forthcoming George Tenet book (we heard recently just how special, but you didn’t hear it from me) and he provided a few details to Chris Matthews on CNN. “George Tenet has been doing a slow burn ever since he left the CIA. He’s been angrier and angrier as he saw himself being essentially made the fall guy on WMD in Iraq. And he’s gonna come back saying he and his agency, the CIA, were pushed, again and again, by […]

Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Tupelo Hassman’s GIRLCHILD, in which a young girl fights for survival against crippling […]