Tomorrow the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism, chaired by Senator Bob Graham, will report its findings to President Bush and Congress and Vintage will release the authorized version as a trade paperback, WORLD AT RISK: The Report of the Commission of the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism. The report is designed as “a measure for the next Administration’s national security strategy,” analyzing the current threat of WMD’s and our government’s ability to respond to them. Graham says “my own assessment at this point is the more likely form of attack is going to be […]
People: Jackson Moves Agencies; Elek to AP Watt
Eleanor Jackson has left the Queen Literary Agency, and is now working at the Elaine Markson Agency. Jon Elek is moving to AP Watt as an agent in January. For the past two and a half years Jon has been an assistant editor at Viking, working with Tony Lacey, in addition to developing his own projects.
UK Author Prevails, But Sour World May Finish Misery Lit
A British jury found in favor of author Constance Briscoe and her publisher Hodder & Stoughton in the odd case in which her mother Carmen Briscoe-Mitchell claimed the book UGLY was “a piece of fiction.” Briscoe said, “I can quite understand why my family went into collective denial but whilst child abuse may be committed behind closed doors it should never be swept under the carpet.” But the Guardian suggests that this will mark the permanent decline of the “misery memoir,” which has flourished in the UK even as it has faded in the US and elsewhere. “Despite Briscoe’s victory […]
Award for Tinti; Honors for Galassi
Hannah Tinti won the 2008 John Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize for THE GOOD THIEF The Good Thief, presented last night at the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction’s benefit dinner. But the focus of this Bloomberg piece is on Farrar, Straus publisher Jonathan Galassi, honored with the Maxwell E. Perkins Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Field of Fiction. The Mercantile says, “Galassi was chosen in recognition of his career as both an editor and a publisher who has supported and shaped the work of a dazzling array of writers, carrying on the tradition exemplified so well by Maxwell Perkins.” […]
Cornwell Gets Personal
With the release of SCARPETTA, her sixteenth novel featuring the title character, Patricia Cornwell is “for the first time, welcoming the media into the sprawling farmhouse-style home she shares with Staci Gruber, 41, whom she married in 2006. Cornwell, 52, has never before discussed their marriage with a mainstream US publication. She did talk about it this year with The Advocate, a gay magazine, and she has spoken with the British press. She considers her sexual orientation enormously private.” She tells USAT, “I’m not a soapbox kind of person. My private life is not 100% comfortable, but I’ve decided these […]
Amazon Closes AbeBooks Purchase
The deal announced on August 1 for Amazon to acquired AbeBooks has now closed. The company reaffirms “AbeBooks will continue to function as a stand-alone operation based in Victoria, British Columbia. AbeBooks will maintain all its Web sites, including its Canadian Web site. The Web sites will continue to have country-specific content, such as reviews of Canadian-authored books and interviews of Canadian writers.” Still no update on what Amazon will do with its minority stake in LibraryThing. Release