Holocaust survivor Aharon Appelfeld, 80, has won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for his novel, Blooms of Darkness. The novel was inspired by his own escape from a concentration camp. It tells the story of an 11-year-old boy who is kept hidden from the Nazis in a brothel. The story is told from the boy's perspective. The book was translated into English by Jeffrey M Green.
Here the book's description from the publisher, Schocken:
The ghetto in which the Jews have been confined is being liquidated by the Nazis, and eleven-year-old Hugo is brought by his mother to the local brothel, where one of the prostitutes has agreed to hide him. Mariana is a bitterly unhappy woman who hates what she has done with her life, and night after night Hugo sits in her closet and listens uncomprehendingly as she rages at the Nazi soldiers who come and go. But when she's not mired in self-loathing, Mariana is fiercely protective of the bewildered, painfully polite young boy. And Hugo, in turn, becomes protective of Mariana, trying to make her laugh when she is depressed, and soothing her physical and mental agony with cold compresses. As memories of his family and friends grow dim, Hugo falls in love with Mariana. And as her life spirals downward, Mariana reaches out for consolation to the adoring boy. The arrival of the Russian army sends the prostitutes fleeing, but Mariana is tracked down and arrested as a Nazi collaborator for having slept with the Germans. As the novel moves toward its heartrending conclusion, Aharon Appelfeld once again crafts out of the depths of unfathomable tragedy a renewal of life and a deeper understanding of what it means to be human.
EdX is a joint partnership between The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University to offer online learning to millions of people around the world. EdX will offer Harvard and MIT classes online for free. MIT's Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Anant Agarwal serves as the first president of edX, and Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith leads faculty in developing courses. The initiative will be overseen by a not-for-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to be owned and governed equally by the two universities. MIT and Harvard have committed to a combined $60 million ($30 million each) in institutional support, grants and philanthropy to launch the collaboration. You can find out more about EdX on its website at edxonline.org. Take a look:
Tea Obreht has been announced as the winner of the 2011 New Voices award for her novel, The Tiger's Wife (Random House). The New Voices award and cash prize is presented yearly by Quality Paperback Book Club to a writer of an outstanding work of debut fiction. Past award winners include Miranda July for No One Belongs Here More Than You, Yann Martel for Life of Pi, David Foster Wallace for Girl with Curious Hair and Richard Russo for The Risk Pool.
Tea Obreht said, "'m so honored to be chosen for the QPB New Voices award, especially given the incredible roster of books by all the other finalists. Thank you so much to QPB for this recognition, and for the spotlight they shine every year on emerging writers."
HarperAudio announced today that it will publish fifteen titles by internationally bestselling Franco-Czech novelist Milan Kunderan. The titles have never been released in audio format.
The new audio books will include Kundera's best-known novels such as, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Joke. All fifteen audiobooks will be published unabridged in the downloadable audio format and will be released throughout 2012.
The first books to be published will be The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. They will be published on May 15, 2012. The fiction audio titles are narrated by Richmond Hoxie and the nonfiction titles will be narrated by Graeme Malcolm.
Terry Karten, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor, said in a statement, "The publication in audio format of the complete works of Milan Kundera, one of the most distinguished and innovative authors of our era, is a major literary event. Harper Perennial has recently reissued Kundera's backlist with new covers featuring original artwork from the author. These developments are sure to bring renewed attention to this renowned author."
Australia's highest court just dealt a severe blow to the motion picture and television industry. The BBC reports that the court upheld a lower court ruling that the country's third largest internet service provider iiNet was not liable for copyright violations by its users who had illegally uploaded copies of popular films and television shows.
The High Court ruling was unanimous in its ruling that the ISP did not authorize the illegal downloads, nor was it able to stop piracy by its users. The case originated over thousands of illegal downloads by customers of popular tv shows and films by using a file sharing program. iiNet did not authorize or participate in the downloads, but said it was unable to police all illegal activity by its users. The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft group was the plaintiff in the case. It consists of 34 film, TV and music companies who are extremely unhappy with the ruling.
The shortlist for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize has been announced. The annual award was founded by The Independent, a British newspaper. The award is given to a novel translated into English in the U.K. The winning novelist and translator each get 5,000 pounds and a magnum of champagne from Taittinger. Here is the shortlist:
The Internet Writing Journal has joined Pinterest. Pinterest is a new social networks that lets users create virtual pinboards on different topics, such as their favorite books and authors. You can find The IWJ on Pinterest here.
Five authors and five illustrators have been selected for the 2012 Hans Christian Andersen Award. The award is given biennially by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to a living author and illustrator whose complete works have made lasting contributions to children's literature. The winners will be announced on Monday, March 19th at the Bologna Children's Book Fair. Here are the author and illustrator finalists with descriptions from the judges:
Five Short-listed Authors
Maria Teresa Andruetto from Argentina is a master of creating sensitive books, which are deep and poetic and relate to a great variety of topics.
Paul Fleischman from the USA makes an innovative and unique contribution to the literature for children. The jury especially appreciated his ability to create characters and to integrate music in his work.
Bart Moeyaert from Belgium presents subtle depictions of strong characters by evoking poetical atmospheres using a language that combines both humor and seriousness.
Jean-Claude Mourlevat from France writes for children and teenagers on many different levels, from poetic prose to fantasy or to realism; music is a constant source of inspiration for him.
Bianca Pitzorno from Italy uses imaginative and diverse texts to share complicity with her readers, using humor and a skillful construction of characters.
Five Short-listed Illustrators
Mohammad Ali Beniasadi from Iran uses different techniques, colour and a subtle sense of humour in his work.
John Burningham from the UK uses delicate irony mixed with innocence and high seriousness that with his use of line and color, creates an intimacy with the reader.
Roger Mello from Brazil tells the reader about popular culture, old legends and the traditions of Brazil by his skillful use of expressing emotions by using brilliant colors and images that are full of meaning.
Peter Sis from the Czech Republic has an extraordinary originality and uses his powerful imagination to create complex and well-documented stories using different design and artistic techniques.
Javier Zabala from Spain has the great ability to transform graphical language into narrative signs through complex, intuitive and detailed representations.
The finalists for 2012 Children's Choice Book Awards have been announced. The winners will be announced at the Children's Choice Book Awards Gala on May 7th. Children can vote online here. Here are the finalists in the Author of the Year and Illustrator of the Year categories.
Author of the Year
Jeff Kinney for Diary of a Wimpy Kid 6: Cabin Fever (Amulet Books/Abrams)
Christopher Paolini for Inheritance (Alfred A. Knopf/Random House)
James Patterson for Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life (Little, Brown)
Rick Riordan for The Son of Neptune (Disney Hyperion)
Rachel Renee Russell for Dork Diaries 3: Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster)
Illustrator of the Year
Felicia Bond for If You Give a Dog a Donut (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins)
Eric Carle for The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse (Philomel/Penguin)
Anna Dewdney for Llama Llama Home With Mama (Viking/Penguin)
Kyung-sook Shin has been named the first woman to win the Man Asian Literary Prize. She is the 2011 prize winner. The South Korean novelist wins the $30,000 for her novel, Please Look After Mom. The translator of the novel, Chi-Young Kim, received $5,000.
Chair of Judges, Razia Iqbal said in a statement, "Please Look After Mom is an incredibly moving portrait of what it means to be a mother, but also of the tradition and modernity of the family in South Korea. The novel is a sensitive exploration of the inner life of the family with a very dynamic narrative structure. The story is surprising in its complexity yet has a beating heart at the centre of it."
The Man Asian Literary Prize was founded in 2007. The annual literary award is given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year. The judges choose a longlist of 10 to 15 titles announced in October, followed by a shortlist of 5 to 6 titles announced in January. The winner is awarded $30,000 in March and the translator (if any) gets $5,000.
The winner of The 2012 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction is Andrew Westoll for his book, The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A Canadian Story of Resilience and Recovery. The book was also nominated for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. The annual Charles Taylor Prize recognizes excellence in Canadian literary non-fiction. You can find out more about the annual prize here.
Here is what the jury said about The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary:
"Brilliantly blending science and storytelling, primatologist and author Andrew Westoll takes us deep into the world of the haunted and haunting rescued research chimps of Fauna Sanctuary. Pulled from decades of horrific lab conditions, rescued chimps live out the balance of their long lives in sanctuaries such as Fauna, cared for and loved by an extraordinary group of people. Westoll deftly draws the reader into the wild day-to-day ride of life with the Fauna chimps and soon their Otherness falls away. Through his lens, the chimps are revealed as the individuals they are, with all their foibles, damage, and possibility - and the reader's world view shifts on its axis. Heart-rending and heart-warming, this is a stunning and important work of art and documentary and science."
The winners of the 26th Annual Ezra Jack Keats New Writer and New Illustrator Book Awards have been announced. The EJK Book Award is given annually to an outstanding new writer and new illustrator of picture books for children (age 9 and under) by the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation. The 2012 awards ceremony will be held on April 12th in conjunction with The University of Southern Mississippi's Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival.
Here is a list of the winners and honorable mentions:
2012 New Writer Award: Tia Isa Wants a Car by Meg Medina (Candlewick Press)
2012 New Illustrator Award: Same, Same but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw (Christy Ottaviano Books)
2012 New Writer Honor: Cinnamon Baby by Nicola Winstanley (Kids Can Press)
2012 New Writer and New Illustrator Honor: Lola's Fandango by Anna Witte (writer), Micha Archer (illustrator) (Barefoot Books)
2012 New Illustrator Honor: Not Inside this House! by David Ercolini (Orchard Books)
In this video, writer and producer Tim Kring (Heroes), talks about what he looks for when he hires screenwriters for his new show Touch, which stars Kiefer Sutherland as the father of a autistic boy who sees the world in a unique way. Kring said that he hired short story writers, because of the way the show is structured, saying: "One of the things I set out to do in terms of finding writers for this show -- I was very interested in writers who wanted to write short stories. In essence, short stories. So I was interested in writers that were really good at creating characters. Who really wanted to tell stories that were contained, and had a beginning, a middle and an end."
The writers talk about why they like the structure of the show, and how they approach writing each week. Touch premieres on Fox on Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 9:00 p.m. Eastern/8:00 p.m. central time. Take a look:
The 43rd annual NAACP Image Awards wre presented last Friday at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The Helpwon three awards, including Best Film. Viola Davis won Best Actress and Octavia Spencer won Best Supporting Actress. Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil - winners in the comedy screenwriting category for The Game - are pictured above.
Here are the winners in the screenwriting and literature categories:
Screenwriting
Comedy Series: The Game, Salim Akil, Mara Brock Akil
Dramatic Series: Treme, Lolis Eric Elie
Motion Picture: The First Grader, Ann Peacock
Literature
Fiction: Say Amen, Again by Reshonda Tate Billingsley
Nonfiction: The Wealth Cure: Putting Money in Its Place by Hill Harper
Debut Author: The Strawberry Letter by Lyah Le Flore
Biography/Autobiography: My Song by Harry Belafonte
Instructional: The T.D. Jakes Relationship Bible: Life Lessons on Relationships from the Inspired Word of God by T.D. Jakes
Poetry: Afro Clouds & Nappy Rain: The Curtis Brown Poems by James Golden
Children: You Can Be a Friend by Tony Dungy, illustrations by Ron Mazellan
Youth/Teens: Jesse Owens: I Always Loved Running by Jeff Burlingame
The Jewish Book Council has announced that Gal Beckerman is the winner of the 2012 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. The prize includes a $100,000 cash prize. The Rohr prize has been awarded annually since 2007. It alternates between considering works of fiction and nonfiction each year.
Abigail Green was the runner-up for her biography, Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero (Belknap Press of Harvard University). She will receive a $25,000 prize.
The Internet Writing Journal now has a Google+ page on Google+. Google+ is a new social network from Google. You can follow us on Google+ by clicking on the Google+ button below and adding us to one of your circles.
Bluewater Productions has launched a Ron Paul comic. The comic is an entry in the publisher's "Political Power" series. The comic for the libertarian GOP presidential candidate is written by Marc Shapiro .
Shapiro says, "In a way, Ron Paul is like any other committed musician or actor. He has a vision, he's well read and he's very much his own person. You may not agree with everything he says but you have to admit that at least he's done his homework before he's said it, which is more than you can say for most politicians."
Darren G. Davis, president of Bluewater Comics, says, "Ron Paul is such a unique voice in the modern world of politics. We want to make sure we told his tale and shared his philosophy and Marc has once again turned in a top-notch script."
The Ron Paul comic will arrive in bookstores in February 2012 and sell for $3.99. Bluewater has also published comics for Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry and the Tea Party.
Two poets have withdrawn from consideration for the TS Eliot Prize, which is awarded annually by the Poetry Book Society (UK). Both poets withdrew to protest the prize being sponsored by Aurum Funds, an investment firm. The TS Eliot Prize turned to the corporate sponsorship after losing its regular funding by the Arts Council.
BBC News reports that Alice Oswald withdrew from the competition on December 6th. She won the TS Eliot Prize in 2002. Australian poet John Kinsella withdrew from the competition on December 8. BBC News reports that Kinsella said, "I regret that I must do this at a particularly difficult time for the Poetry Book Society (PBS), but the business of Aurum does not sit with my personal politics and ethics."
A Telegrapharticle notes that TS Eliot worked for Lloyd's bank for the first half of his life.
Books-a-Million announced its 3rd quarter financial results for the quarter ended October 29, 2011. The company reported that net sales were down by 8.1% to $94.4 million from net sales of $102.7 million in the year-earlier period. Comparable store sales also suffered, declining 7.7% compared with the 13-week period in the prior year.
The company had a net loss for the third quarter of $4.0 million, or $0.25 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $1.7 million, or $0.11 per diluted share, compared to the prior year. The company attributed some of the loss to one time charges related to the closing of 21 locations that were underperforming, and the opening of 41 new stores beginning this month.
Net sales were down 10.1% compared to last year. Clyde B. Anderson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, "Results for the quarter reflect a reduction in the comparable store sales decline that we have experienced year to date. An improved publishing lineup and good performance from our general merchandise expansion were partially offset by the effects of the Border's liquidation sales in 15 of our markets. We are excited to be bringing the BAM! brand to new markets throughout the country and we are focused on preparations for the holiday season."
Canadian bookstore chain Indigo Books & Music, Inc. announced that it will sell its majority share in the Kobo ebook reader to Internet service company Rakuten, Inc. Rakuten will purchase all outstanding shares of Kobo, Inc. for $315 million (U.S.) Kobo will remain a stand-alone operation located in Toronto. Indigo said in a statement:
Indigo founded Kobo and spun it off in 2009 as an independent player in the global eReading market. Both Indigo and Kobo believe that Rakuten is the right global partner for Kobo to continue to grow the company to its full potential. With over 50 million customers, and a global mandate, Rakuten's e-commerce strength and broad experience will offer the support and expertise to enable Kobo to further expand its reach and solidify its position as a global leader in eReading.
"We are truly proud of the success that Kobo and Indigo have achieved. From start up, only 24 months ago, to becoming a strong global player with a unique reading experience and one of the largest multi-language eReading catalogues in the world, Kobo is now among the world leaders in the emerging eReading industry," said Heather Reisman, CEO of Indigo and Chair of Kobo. "Rakuten will allow Kobo to meet the demands of competing with the very best players in the world. Notwithstanding the sale, Indigo will maintain a very strong relationship with Kobo, supporting the products and the services both in store and online and directly benefiting from the growth of the Canadian eReading market. The success of KOBO confirms that Indigo is a great brand and a strong platform on which we can continue to innovate and grow."
The sale is expected to close in early 2012, after obtaining approval under the Investment Canada Act.
One of the luxury gifts in the Neiman Marcus 2011 Christmas Book is a custom built library from Assouline. The $125,000 loor to ceiling and wall to wall library will reflect Assouline's style as well as your intellectual viewpoint. When the decor is complete, the shelves will be lined with the Assouline collection, consisting of 250 current and vintage volumes in the genre of your choice. Neiman Marcus will also donate $2,500 to First Book, a nonprofit organization that provides access to new books for children in need throughout the U.S. and Canada. Take a look:
You can find a list of more of the luxury gifts in the 2011 Christmas Book here.
DC Entertainment and its Vertigo will adapt Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy novels into graphic novels. Publishers Weekly reports that each book in the series will be turned into two graphic novels which will be available in print and digital formats. The novels have sold more than 60 million copies. A feature film of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara will be released on December 21, 2011.
The estate of Steig Larsson and the Hedlund Literary Agency brokered the deal with DC. The graphic novel versions of the first book in the series The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo will be released in 2012. The graphic novel versions of The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest will be released in 2014.
Joakim Larsson, the younger brother of Stieg Larrson, said: "Stieg always liked comics and it will be exciting to see the unforgettable characters he created come to life on the comics page."
Author Cassandra Clare read from her upcoming book Clockwork Prince, which comes out in December, at the 2011 National Book Festival. The book is the sequel to Clockwork Angel. After her reading, she took questions about her books and writing, including questions about prologue, titles, writing fanfiction, outlines and more. Here is what she had to say about outlines.
Right. We call them planners pantsers. You are a pantser, you write by the seat of your pants. I admire that. I, I, I am not a risk taker like that. I do a general outline plot first, and think about it for a while, and then I generally gather a group of my friends together and we do what we call a micro plot, which means every chapter is planned out ahead of time, every, everything that happens in the chapter, everything that happens in the next chapter, so that the whole story is told and like the general kinks are worked out ahead of time before I start writing and I know, I pretty much know where the story is going to go. And I mean, there is no one perfect way to write a book, so that's the way that works for me, but, you know, I also have friends who just do what you do and just write, no outline and it works for them, so you just have to find the system that works the best for you.
2011 is the 50th anniversary of The Phanton Tollbooth. The book's creators, writer Norton Juster and illustrator Jules Feiffer. talk about the creation of their classic novel fifty years ago. Juster says the character was based on him and the way he felt. Feiffer says Juster would read passages from the book to him and one day he started to write sketches for the book. The two authors - who both rented apartments in the same building - disagree about how exactly they met. Take a look:
The BBC reports that British Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy is waiting for a pair of football boots promised to her by British soccer star, David Beckham. Carol Ann Duffy wrote a poem, called "Achilles," about how an injured foot kept Beckham from playing in England's 2010 World Cup campaign.
David Beckham asked the poet laureate for a copy of the poem so she promised to send him one in exchange for his boots. Carol Ann Duffy sent a handwritten copy of the poem to Beckham, but she told BBC Radio 4's Front Row, "He's got the bloody poem, I haven't got the boots."
She has been waiting for the boots for nearly six months. Beckham needs to deliver his boots ASAP.
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation has announced the winners of the 2011 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. The Surrendered by Chang-Rae Lee won the fiction prize and In The Place Of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance by Wilbert Rideau won the nonfiction prize.
Beneath the Lion's Gaze by Maaza Mengiste and The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson are the runners-up.
The annual awards are inspired by the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia, The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is the only international literary peace prize awarded in the United States. Winners receive a $10,000 honorarium while runners-up receive $1,000.
Amazon announced today that Kindle books are coming to more than 11,000 U.S. libraries. The digital book distribution company OverDrive will handle the loans, as it does for most libraries.
To check out a book for Kindle, patrons must be a member of their local library. With the new service, the patron goes to the library's website, picks a book, then clicks the option to Send to Kindle. The book will appear on the user's Kindle the next time he logs in. The new service allows patrons to make notes in the margin, and to purchase the book later if they wish.
Jay Marine, Director, Amazon Kindle said in a statement: "We're even doing a little extra here - normally, making margin notes in library books is a big no-no. But we're fixing this by extending our Whispersync technology to library books, so your notes, highlights and bookmarks are always backed up and available the next time you check out the book or if you decide to buy the book."
Not all publishers make their ebooks available to libraries. HarperCollins only allows a new titles licensed from library ebook vendors to circulate only 26 times before the license expires. Macmillan and Simon & Schuster do not allow ebooks to be borrowed from libraries, according to The New York Times.
British Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy says texting is a modern form of poetry. Duffy told The Guardian in an interview, that "The poem is a form of texting... it's the original text."
She also said, "It's a perfecting of a feeling for language, it's a way of saying more with less, just as texting is."
She also talked about how she started writing poetry. She says, "I'd write them out by hand, and it was that very physical act that led me to become a writer. It was quite an intimate experience of poetry, and that's what I'd like us to go back to now with children."
Duffy has also launched a competition for British secondary school students to write anthologies. The competition will be open to entries until March 1, 2012.
The Google Library Project scanning lawsuit had a status conference today with federal judge Denny Chin. The judge set important dates for upcoming hearings. Publisher's Weekly reports that settlement talks continue between Google and the many plaintiffs, which include the Authors Guild, Association of American Publishers and five other book publishers.
The judge said he wanted the case ready for trial by July, 2012. Attorneys for the AAP and for Google told the court that settlement talks are ongoing and that both sides are hopeful their differences can be worked out. The AAP released a statement saying, "Today, we informed the court that the Association of American Publishers, the five publisher plaintiffs and Google have made good progress toward a settlement that would resolve the pending litigation regarding the Google Library Project. We are working to resolve the differences that remain between the parties and reach terms that are mutually agreeable."
The Authors Guild attorney Michael Boni sounded less optimistic about a settlement that would make the authors happy. That could lead to a strange case in which the publishers settle with Google, but the Authors Guild presses on with the case.
Judge Chen ordered the plaintiffs to file their brief for class certification by December 12th. The response is due January 20th. Discovery must be finished by the end of March, 2012. Motions for summary judgment (which everyone is going to file no doubt) will be due by the middle of July.
PW says that the plaintiffs were very unhappy when Judge Chin said the case is about snippets of the books being used in the search engine. They corrected the judge, explaining that the case is about the unauthorized copying, scanning and storing of books. It's not a good sign for the Guild that the judge is so off base as to what the case is about.
McGraw-Hill announced a major change at the company. McGraw-Hill will be split into two separate companies as part of the Board of Directors' three-part "Growth and Value Plan."
McGraw-Hill Education will handle education services and digital learning. McGraw-Hill Markets will focus on its capital and commodities markets. Here is the company's description of the two new entities:
McGraw-Hill Markets, the working name for this Company, will include the following iconic brands in the capital and commodities markets: Standard & Poor's, the world's foremost provider of credit ratings; S&P Indices, the world's leading index business; the newly launched S&P Capital IQ, a leading global provider of multi-asset class data, research, benchmarks and analytics; and Platts, the leading global provider of information and indices in energy, petrochemicals and metals. Combined, the capital and commodities businesses account for approximately 90% of McGraw-Hill Market's annual revenues.
McGraw-Hill Education expects revenues of approximately $2.4 billion in 2011. As an independent education company, it will be able to optimize its solid cash generation capabilities and strong balance sheet to pursue accelerated growth strategies and augment its organic growth with digital services and/or via acquisitions or strategic partnerships. For example, it will have greater flexibility to develop and deploy new products and services to address secular trends toward digital education platforms and to pursue higher-margin opportunities in educational services such as online instructional and school digital services. Internationally, the company will be better positioned to capitalize on education spending and adult skills training in China, India, Brazil and other emerging markets, which are projected to continue to grow at double-digit rates.
In this video Terry McGraw, the Chairman, President and CEO explains the three part strategy:
Publishers Weekly reports that Random House has launched a new current affairs website. The site is called Conversation Online and is run by Random House executive editor Jon Meacham.
Meacham, a Pulitzer Prize winner for his biography of Andrew Jackson, leads a discussion of about issues in the news, and books relating to those topics. Meacham will recommend books for those interested in learning more about topics of discussion. Right now, the discussion is about the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
British playwright Sir David Hare has won this year's Pinter literary prize. The award for British writers was established in 2009 in memory of Nobel-winning playwright Harold Pinter.
David Hare will be presented with the prize at a public event at the British Library on October 10th. The British Library is the home of Harold Pinter's archive.
Lady Antonia Fraser, Harold Pinter's widow, said, "In the course of his long, distinguished career, David Hare has never failed to speak out fearlessly on the subject of politics in the broadest sense; this courage, combined with his rich creative talent, makes him a worthy winner of the PEN/Pinter Prize."
You can find a list of Hare's plays, scripts and directing credits here.
Poynter.org has a very interesting interview with longtime media critic Jack Shafer. Shafer was just laid off from Slate after a round of cost-cutting. He will still be a freelance contributor.
When asked if he was surprised by the layoffs, he replied, "Everybody should be expecting a layoff in hard times like these, so no, it didn't surprise me." Shafer warns journalists, "Do you know the play/movie Glengarry Glen Ross? There's a cliche the boiler-room salesmen in it use: 'ABC,' which stands for Always Be Closing. I believe in ABL for journalists: Always Be Looking. No matter how good your job is--and mine was great--you should always be looking for your next gig."
The winners of the Sidewise Awards for Alternate History have been announced. The winners were announced at Renovation, the 69th Annual World Science Fiction Convention the weekend of August 17-21, 2011, in Reno, Nevada. Here are the winners:
Short-Form Alternate History: Alan Smale. "A Clash of Eagles" in Panverse Two (ed. Dario Ciriello), Panverse Publishing.
Long-Form Alternate History: Eric Swedin. When Angels Wept: A What-If History of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Potomac Books 2010.
You can see the books and stories that were nominated here.
Slice Literary, Inc. was awarded a $25,000 grant from Amazon. The grant support's Slice Literary's first writers' conference, which will take place at Booklyn College on September 16 and 17.
Slice says the grant will support the operating of the confernece and help fund scholarships for writing students from local creative writing programs to attend the conference for free. You can find out more about the conference here.
You can find a list of other conferences and organizations Amazon.com supports with grants here.
NPR has its listeners (and readers) voting on the best 100 science fiction and fantasy books of all time. After sifting through thousands of entries, the list was pared down. You can vote for ten of your favorite books. The results will be posted in a little over a week.
As with any list of this kind, there are bound to be book that were missed and books that some people don't think should make the semi-finals. Also, mixing fantasy and sf can be problematic. But why not vote, anyway? We did. Go here to vote for your favorite ten.
Here is a video of Stephenie Meyer discussing Breaking Dawn, the final book in the Twilight Saga. Meyer says she wants the story to be discovered the same way Bella discovers what is happening in the world around her. In this interview, from 2008, Meyer also mentions finishing Midnight Sun, which tells the story from Edward's perspective. Midnight Sun has still not been finished.
You can also watch an interview video here of Meyer discussing her path to publication before the books became a hit. Take a look:
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The winners of the 2011 Southern Independent Book Awards have been announced. The awards honor southern writing in six categories. Here is a list of the winners.
Children's: Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (Puffin Books)
Cooking: Southern My Way by Gena Knox (Gena Knox Media, LLC)
Fiction: Burning Bright by Ron Rash (Ecco Press)
Nonfiction: The Blueberry Years by Jim Minick (Thomas Dunne Books)
Poetry: A House of Branches by Janisse Ray (Wind Publications)
Young Adult: Countdown by Deborah Wiles (Scholastic)
The Paris Reviewhas made the digital plunge. The summer issue of TPR is the first issue available digitally through the Zinio digital magazines service.
Zinio's digital magazines can be read on iPad, laptop, or mobile device. You can find TPRhere on Zinio. It costs $30 for four digital issues.
Poets C.D. Wright and David Wagoner read from their work in an evening presentation at the Library of Congress.
C.D. Wright was born in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. She has published over a dozen books, including Rising, Falling, Hovering and Like Something Flying Backwards: New and Selected Poems.
David Wagoner has won numerous prestigious literary awards including the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, and the Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and has twice been nominated for the National Book Award. Wagoner was selected to serve as chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 1978, replacing Robert Lowell, and was the editor of Poetry Northwest until its last issue in 2002.
Authors Sarah Mlynowski, Maureen Johnson and Sara Shepard are going on tour together. The authors sat down to discuss their books. Sara Shepard, author of Pretty Little Liars series, talked above filming a cameo for the tv show. Maureen Johnson says she knows how to open any bathroom door on an airplane, even if it is locked. Take a look:
George R.R. Martin is best known for his Song of Ice and Fire series, which is currently an HBO series called Game of Thrones. George R.R. Martin also wrote a children's story, The Ice Dragon. He talks about the book in the clip. Martin says the book evolved as a children's book twenty years after it was a short story. The Ice Dragon breathes ice instead of fire. Take a look:
The world's smallest book according to Guinness World Records is a tiny copy of Anton Chekov's short story, "The Chameleon." The book is a .9 by .9 millimeter book, which is slightly bigger than a grain of salt. Mark Palkovic, head of the Albino Gorno Memorial Music Library, has a certificate from Guinness World Records that confirms the book is the smallest in the world.
The miniscule book has 30 pages and three color illustrations. The print cannot be read by the naked eye, but Palkovic keeps another larger copy of the book, still measuring just a tiny 2 by 1.8 centimeters, nearby.
"There are only 100 of these books that were published," says Palkovic. "Fifty were published in English (Palkovic has the English version) and 50 in Russian. I have copy number 16 of the English version."
There have been smaller books created by nanotechnology labs, such as the book, Teeny Ted From Turnip Town, which was created by the Nano Imaging Facility of Simon Fraser University. You would need an electron microscope to read this book. You can read more about it here.
Here is Palkovic talking about the tiny Chekhov book. Take a look:
Poetry brothels, like the Chicago Poetry Brothel, are reportedly catching on in cities, including New York, L.A. and Barcelona. A faq on the Chicago Poetry Brothel website explains how it works:
Sit back. Relax. Down a Jameson and ginger, and simply enjoy the spotlight readings, fortune-tellings, burlesque dances and more, then purchase tokens to obtain private-readings with our fantastic cast of poetry whores. The Good Doctor and Madame Black-eyed Susan will ensure you have the most fun you've ever had in a bordello
We love this clever advertising campaign to promote reading that was created by Lithuanian advertising firm Love Agency. The "Become Someone Else" campaign was created for Mint Vinetu, a used bookstore in Vilnius. You can see more of the ads here.
The Cleveland Foundation recently announced the winners of the 76th Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. The Anisfield-Wolf prize is a juried American literary competition devoted to recognizing books that have made an important contribution to society's understanding of racism and the diversity of human cultures. Here is the list of winners:
The Anisfield-Wolf winners will be honored in Cleveland on September 15 at a ceremony hosted by the Cleveland Foundation and emceed by Jury Chair Gates. Rita Dove, Joyce Carol Oates, Steven Pinker and Simon Schama also served on the jury.
Here is a great video of Stephenie Meyer discussing the first three books in the now famous Twilight series. The video is from August, 2007 before the films made the series a mammoth hit and before she wrote Breaking Dawn. Meyer says she figured out how to write a query letter on the Internet. She got ten rejections and one letter from an agency that wanted to see more. She says the series was not originally called Twilight. Meyer's story is a pretty inspiring story for aspiring writers. Take a look:
The White House held a White House Poetry Student Workshop with over 70 students and poets including Rita Dove, Billy Collins, Kenny Goldsmith, Alison Knowles, and Aimee Mann. First Lady Michelle Obama spoke about the important of poetry and self-expression as the host of the workshop. Michelle Obama start speaking around the 12 minute mark. Take a look:
The Lambda Literary Foundation, a nonprofit organization for the LGBT literary community, announced that it received a $25,000 grant from Amazon.com. The money supports the Writers' Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices. This year's retreat will be held August 6th through August 13th, 2011, on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles.
Tony Valenzuela, LLF's Executive Director, says, "This continuation of Amazon's generous support of Lambda Literary reflects its ongoing commitment to the development of emerging voices in the LGBT community. The mission of the Writers' Retreat is to foster the continued vitality of LGBT writers whose work fully explores the LGBT experience, and we are grateful to Amazon.com for helping to ensure the success of our efforts."
The winning titles and translators for this year's Best Translated Book Awards have been announced. Organized by Three Percent at the University of Rochester, the Best Translated Book Award honors the best original works of international literature and poetry published in the U.S. over the previous year. Each winning author and translator receives a $5,000 cash prize thanks to support from Amazon.com. Here are the winners:
Poetry: Ales Steger's The Book of Things, translated from the Slovenian by Brian Henry
Fiction: Thomas Teal's translation from the Swedish of Tove Jansson's The True Deceiver
You can read a press release about this year's winners here.
Ana Maria Matute has won the Cervantes Prize. The 85-year-old Barcelona writer will receive the $183,000 stipend. The awards ceremony was attended by by the Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish Minister of Culture, Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde
Ana Maria said at a news conference, "I take it as a recognition, if not of the quality of my work, then at least of the effort and dedication that I have devoted to writing throughout my life."
The Cervantes Prize was established in 1975 by the Spanish Ministry of Culture.
David Ferry is the 2011 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize recipient. The annual award, presented by the The Poetry Foundation, carries a $100,000 cash prize. The award honors a living U.S. poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition. Established in 1986 by Ruth Lilly, the Prize is one of the most prestigious awards given to American poets.
You can read David Ferry's bio here on The Poetry Foundaton's website.
ArtsBeat says Ferry is working on a new translation of Virgil's Aenied and he will have a new collection of poetry, Bewilderment, out in 2012. Ferry also shared a poem with ArtsBeat, which you can read here.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum awarded the 2011 Charles C. Eldredge Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in American Art to Kristina Wilson for her book The Modern Eye: Stieglitz, MoMA and the Art of Exhibition, 1925-1934 (Yale University Press, 2009).
The jurors wrote, "Wilson has written a significant book with a clear argument, articulated throughout with graceful writing that is accessible to the general reader. Her fluent exposition of a well-researched, original interpretation of Americans' 'Modern Eye' is an outstanding contribution to the field."
The annual Eldredge Prize, named in honor of the former director of the museum (1982-1988), is sponsored by the American Art Forum, a patrons' support organization. The honor includes a $3,000 cash prize.
Kay Ryan has won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her poetry collection, The Best of It: New and Selected Poems. Kay Ryan was appointed as U.S. Poet Laureate in 2008. She held the position for two terms. You can read her bio here on the poetryfoundation.org website.
The two finalists included:
The Common Man by Maurice Manning (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), which the Pulitzer Prize Board describes as a "rich, often poignant collection of poems rooted in a rural Kentucky experiencing change in its culture and landscape.
Break the Glass by Jean Valentine (Copper Canyon Press), , which the Pulitzer Prize Board describes as collection of imaginative poems in which small details can accrue great power and a reader is never sure where any poem might lead.
You can see lists of the other Letters, Drama and Music Pulitzer winners here. Journalism winners can be found here.
The shortlist for the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction has been announced. The annual award is the UK's only annual book award for fiction written by a woman. This year's shortlist honors both new and well-established writers. It features three first novels and one previously shortlisted author; Nicole Krauss (2006). Here is the list:
Emma Donoghue (Irish) - Room (Picador) 7th Novel
Aminatta Forna (British/Sierra Leonean) - The Memory of Love (Bloomsbury) 2nd Novel
Emma Henderson (British) - Grace Williams Says it Loud (Sceptre) 1st Novel
Nicole Krauss (American) - Great House (Viking) 3rd Novel
The New York Postreports that Salman Rushie, author of The Satanic Verses, will be picking out ten books for guests at the Standard Hotels. The books will be placed in rooms at the hotels during the PEN World Voices Festival, which runs from April 25 to May 1. The Post says Rushdie will choose 10 American classics for hotel guests to read.
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EdX is a joint partnership between The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University to offer online learning to millions of people around the world. EdX will offer Harvard and MIT classes online for free. MIT's Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Anant Agarwal serves as the first president of edX, and Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith leads faculty in developing courses. The initiative will be overseen by a not-for-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to be owned and governed equally by the two universities. MIT and Harvard have committed to a combined $60 million ($30 million each) in institutional support, grants and philanthropy to launch the collaboration. You can find out more about EdX on its website at 
HarperAudio announced today that it will publish fifteen titles by internationally bestselling Franco-Czech novelist Milan Kunderan. The titles have never been released in audio format. 
Five authors and five illustrators have been selected for the 2012 Hans Christian Andersen Award. The award is given biennially by the International Board on Books for Young People (
The finalists for 2012 Children's Choice Book Awards have been announced. The winners will be announced at the Children's Choice Book Awards Gala on May 7th. Children can vote online 
Kyung-sook Shin has been named the first woman to win the 
The winner of The 2012 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction is Andrew Westoll for his book, 
The Jewish Book Council has announced that Gal Beckerman is the winner of the 2012 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. The prize includes a $100,000 cash prize. The Rohr prize has been awarded annually since 2007. It alternates between considering works of fiction and nonfiction each year. 
Bluewater Productions has launched a Ron Paul comic. The comic is an entry in the publisher's "Political Power" series. The comic for the libertarian GOP presidential candidate is written by Marc Shapiro . 
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation has announced the winners of the 2011 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. The Surrendered by Chang-Rae Lee won the fiction prize and In The Place Of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance by Wilbert Rideau won the nonfiction prize. 
The Paris Review 
The winning titles and translators for this year's Best Translated Book Awards have been announced. Organized by Three Percent at the University of Rochester, the Best Translated Book Award honors the best original works of international literature and poetry published in the U.S. over the previous year. Each winning author and translator receives a $5,000 cash prize thanks to support from Amazon.com. Here are the winners: 