London Book Fair 2013

Special link: London Book Fair 2013

Monday, April 30, 2012

2012 Agatha Award winners

The 2012 Agatha Award winners were announced at the 24th Annual Agatha Awards Banquet at Malice Domestic in Bethesda, MD, April 28th, 2012.

Best Novel:
Three-Day Town by Margaret Maron (Grand Central Publishing)

Best First Novel:
Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry (Crown)

Best Non-fiction:
Books, Crooks and Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure by Leslie Budewitz (Linden)

Best Short Story:
"Disarming" (PDF) by Dana Cameron, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - June 2011

Best Children's/Young Adult:
The Black Heart Crypt by Chris Grabenstein (Random House)

Best Historical Novel:
Naughty in Nice by Rhys Bowen (Berkley)

PA Bulletin 30 April 2012

PA Bulletin 30 April 2012, from The Publishers Association, UK, is now available online #publisher #publishing

2012 Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards winners

The winners of the 2012 Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards, celebrating "excellence in photography and moving image publishing," are:

Best Photography Book: Carleton Watkins: The Complete Mammoth Photographs edited by Weston Naef and Christine Hult-Lewis (Getty Publications)

Best Moving Image Book: Concentrationary Cinema: Aesthetics as Political Resistance in Alain Resnais's Night and Fog edited by Max Silverman and Griselda Pollock (Berghahn Books)

National Media Museum First Book Award: Mrs. Merryman's Collection (of postcards) edited by Anne Sophie Merryman (to be published by MACK)

Outstanding Contribution to Publishing: Dewi Lewis of Dewi Lewis Publishing

Sunday, April 29, 2012

J K Rowling's The Casual Vacancy to be published in Germany

J K Rowling's The Casual Vacancy is to be published in Germany by Carlsen and Ullstein, acting in an unprecedented joint venture

Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies Issue #19

Welcome to this issue of the Carnival of the Indies blog carnival. This issue is for April, 2012. We welcome your submissions on topics related to writing, self-publishing, book design or marketing books

Saturday, April 28, 2012

The Man Booker Prizes Weekly Roundup - 27 April 2012

The latest news about Man Booker Prize writers and judges - 27 April 2012

Tor UK ebook titles to go DRM-free

Tor UK, Pan Macmillan's science fiction and fantasy imprint, announces that it will make its ebooks DRM-free over the next three months

Commonwealth Writers announces shortlists for 2012 prizes

Commonwealth Writers has announced shortlists for the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Writers from around the world have been shortlisted for each prize in anticipation of becoming a regional winner on 22 May and ultimately competing for overall winner which will be announced at Hay Festival on 8 June:

Commonwealth Book Prize

The Wandering Falcon, Jamil Ahmad (Pakistan), Hamish Hamilton

Patchwork, Ellen Banda-Aaku (Zambia), Penguin Books, South Africa

Rebirth: a novel, Jahnavi Barua (India), Penguin Books India

The Sly Company of People Who Care, Rahul Bhattacharya (India) Picador

The Ottoman Motel, Christopher Currie (Australia), The Text Publishing Company

A Cupboard Full of Coats, Yvvette Edwards (UK), Oneworld Publications

The Book of Answers, CY Gopinath (India), HarperCollins India

Jubilee, Shelley Harris (South Africa), Weidenfeld & Nicolson

The Dancing and the Death on Lemon Street, Denis Hirson (UK), Jacana Media

The Vanishing Act, Mette Jakobsen (Australia), The Text Publishing Company

Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, Shehan Karunatilaka (Sri Lanka), Random House India

Purple Threads, Jeanine Leane (Australia), University of Queensland Press

Sweetheart, Alecia McKenzie (Jamaica), Peepal Tree Press

The Town that Drowned, Riel Nason (Canada), Goose Lane Editions

Dancing Lessons, Olive Senior (Canada), Cormorant Books

The Dubious Salvation of Jack V, Jacques Strauss (South Africa), Jonathan Cape

Me and Mr Booker, Cory Taylor (Australia), The Text Publishing Company

Pao, Kerry Young (UK), Bloomsbury



Commonwealth Short Story Prize

Morrison Okoli (1955-2010), Jekwu Anyaegbuna (Nigeria)

Flight, Jayne Bauling (South Africa)

The Queen's Blessing, Edyth Bulbring (South Africa)

Devil Star, Hazel Campbell (Jamaica)

Brothers, Adrienne Frater (New Zealand)

Like a Heart Maybe, but Cold, Chris Hill (UK)

The False River, Nick Holdstock (UK)

Radio Story, Anushka Jasraj (India)

Rush, Nic Low (Australia)

Elbow, Khadija Magardie (South Africa)

Two Girls in a Boat, Emma Martin (New Zealand)

Glory, Janice Lynn Mather (The Bahamas)

The Dolphin Catcher, Diana McCaulay (Jamaica)

Friends, Sharon Millar (Trinidad and Tobago)

The Ghost Marriage, Andrea Mullaney (UK)

If These Walls had Ears, Carl Nixon (New Zealand)

Next Full Moon We'll Release Juno Bridget Pitt (South Africa)

The Crane, Sarah Quigley (New Zealand)

Drums, Mahesh Rao (UK)

Ammulu, Poile Sengupta (India)

Another Dull Day, Sreejith Sukumaran (India)

Friday, April 27, 2012

Thursday, April 26, 2012

2012 Anisfield-Wolf winners

"The 2012 Anisfield-Wolf winners reflect the complexity of the issues of race and cultural diversity in our world," said Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University, who serves as jury chair. "These books and the people who created them help us gain a deeper understanding of the need to respect both the humanity and individuality of one other." Our 2012 winners are (click on any of the photos to read more on the authors):

* Esi Edugyan, Half-Blood Blues: A Novel, Fiction
* David Blight, American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era, Nonfiction
* David Livingstone Smith, Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, Nonfiction
* Wole Soyinka, Lifetime Achievement

Orwell Prize shortlist

The 2012 Orwell Prize finalists are:

* The Beautiful and the Damned by Siddhartha Deb
* The Opium War by Julia Lovell
* Dead Men Risen by Toby Harnden
* People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry
* Dark Market by Misha Glenny
* Hood Rat by Gavin Knight

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

2012 SIBA Book Award finalists

The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance has determined the finalists for the 2012 SIBA Book Awards, "representing booksellers' favorite handsells of the year." Winners will be announced July 4, "Independents Day." Finalists and winners will be honored September 8 during the 2012 SIBA Trade Show in Naples, Florida, USA:

Children
Always Neverland by Zoe Barton (HarperCollins)
Animalogy by Marianne Berkes (Sylvan Dell)
Bigger than a Breadbox by Laurel Snyder (Random House)
Jo MacDonald Saw a Pond by Mary Quattlebaum (Dawn Publications)

Cooking
Basic to Brilliant Y'all by Virginia Willis (Ten Speed Press)
New Southern Garden Cookbook by Sheri Castle (University of North Carolina Press)
Southern Biscuits by Nathalie Dupree & Cynthia Graubart (Gibbs Smith)
Well, Shut My Mouth by Stephanie L. Tyson (John F. Blair)

Fiction
The Beach Trees by Karen White (New American Library)
The Butterfly's Daughter by Mary Alice Monroe (Gallery Books)
The Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew (Kensington)
Iron House by John Hart (St. Martin’s Press)
Nightwoods by Charles Frazier (Random House)

Nonfiction
Lions of the West by Robert Morgan (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)
Praying for Strangers by River Jordan (Berkley)
Upheaval in Charleston by Susan Millar Williams and Stephen G. Hoffius (University of Georgia Press)
Working South by Mary Whyte (University of South Carolina Press)
You Don't Sweat Much for a Fat Girl by Celia Rivenbark (St. Martin’s Griffin)

Poetry
Abandoned Quarry by John Lane (Mercer University Press)
Head Off & Split: Poems (2011) by Nikky Finney (TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press)
Terroir by Robert Morgan (Penguin)
Waking by Ron Rash (Hub City Press)

Young Adult
The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan (Delacorte)
Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact by A. J. Hartley (Razorbill)
Magnolia League by Katie Crouch (Poppy Books)
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley (Simon and Schuster)

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Guardian and Hot Keys launch young writers prize

The Guardian and Hot Key Books are launching a search for the next generation of writers of children's fiction with the Guardian Hot Key Books Young Writers Prize

Marion Lloyd to retire

Marion Lloyd has announced that she will be retiring from her job as editorial director of Marion Lloyd Books in November. Lloyd launched her eponymous list, an imprint of Scholastic, seven years ago and has built up a reputation for publishing outstanding new authors such as Ally Kennen and Moira Young, winner of the 2012 Costa Award, alongside new books by established authors including Philip Reeve

RSC teams up with Asia Information Services to sell eBooks in China and Hong Kong

The Royal Society of Chemistry has joined forces with Asia Information Services (AIS) to sell RSC eBooks in China and Hong Kong. With more than 1,000 books, the RSC eBook Collection is a definitive point of reference for anyone working in the chemical sciences. More than 25,000 chapters spanning 40 years have been brought together and digitised as fully-searchable pdf files. The result is a comprehensive overview of research and opinion across the chemical sciences. The RSC has an extensive portfolio of books ranging from food science and analytical chemistry to organic and physical chemistry. The collaboration allows AIS to exclusively sell RSC eBooks in China and Hong Kong for a 4 year period from April 2012

2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes ceremony honors the best books of 2011

Winners of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, which were announced Friday to launch the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, are:

Biography: Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned by John A. Farrell (Doubleday)

Current interest: Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (FSG)

Fiction: Luminarium by Alex Shakar (SoHo Press)

First fiction: Shards by Ismet Prcic (Black Cat/Grove/Atlantic)

Graphic novel: Finder: Voice by Carla Speed McNeil (Dark Horse)

History: Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America by Richard White (Norton)

Mystery/thriller: 11/22/1963 by Stephen King (Scribner)

Poetry: Double Shadow: Poems by Carl Phillips (FSG)

Science and technology: Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius by Sylvia Nasar (S&S)

Young adult literature: The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman (Scholastic)

Lifetime achievement: Rudolfo Anaya

Innovator's award: Figment, co-founded by Jacob Lewis and Dana Goodyear

2012 Chautauqua Prize wiiner

Chautauqua Institution is pleased to announce The Sojourn (Bellevue Literary Press) by Andrew Krivak as the first-ever winner of The Chautauqua Prize. The Chautauqua Prize is a new national prize that celebrates a book of fiction or literary/narrative nonfiction that provides a richly rewarding reading experience and honors the author for a significant contribution to the literary arts

The Desmond Elliott Prize for New Fiction longlist

The Desmond Elliott Prize, which aims to support new writers and to celebrate their fiction, was established in 2008 in honour of publisher and literary agent Desmond Elliott, one of the most charismatic and successful men in this field, who died in August 2003. To be eligible, the novel must be written in English and published in the UK. The prize is judged by a panel of three, who look for a novel with a compelling narrative, arresting character, and which is both vividly written and confidently realised. The winner is announced at a ceremony at Fortnum & Mason, Desmond Elliott's local grocer. The 2012 longlist was announced on 24th April. The shortlist follows in May and the winner is announced on 28th June. This year's panel is chaired by author Sam Llewellyn, a protégé of Desmond Elliot; he is joined by Tom Gatti, Deputy Editor of The Times' 'reviewsection and Caroline Mileham, Head of Books at Play.com:

Absolution by Patrick Flanery
Bed by David Whitehouse
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood
Care of Wooden Floors by Will Wiles
The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen
The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness
The Missing Shade of Blue by Jennie Erdal
The Spider King's Daughter by Chibundu Onuzo
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Monday, April 23, 2012

The Man Booker Prizes Weekly Roundup - 20 April 2012

The latest news about Man Booker Prize writers and judges - 20 April 2012

Saturday, April 21, 2012

The Arthur Ellis Awards Shortlists

Crime Writers of Canada has announced The Arthur Ellis Awards Shortlists:

Best Crime Novel
A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny, St. Martin's Press
Before the Poison by Peter Robinson, McClelland and Stewart
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley, Doubleday Canada
I'll See you in My Dreams by William Deverell, McClelland and Stewart
The Guilty Plea by Robert Rotenberg, Simon&Schuster

Best First Novel
The Man Who Killed by Fraser Nixon, Douglas & McIntrye
The Survivor by Sean Slater, Simon&Schuster
The Water Rat of Wanchai by Ian Hamilton, House of Anansi Press Inc.
Tight Corner by Roger White, BPS Books
Watching Jeopardy by Norm Foster, XLibris

Best Crime Book in French
La chorale du diable by Martin Michaud, Les Editions Guélette
Pwazon by Diane Vincent, Editors Triptyque
Pour Ne Pas Mourir ce soir by Guillaume Lapierre-Desnoyers, Lévesque Éditeur

Best Juvenile or Young Adult Crime Book
Blink & Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones, Candlewick Press
Charlie's Key by Rob Mills, Orca Book Publishers
Empire of Ruins by Arthur Slade, HarperCollins Publishers
Held by Edeet Ravel, Annick Press
Missing by Becky Citra, Orca Book Publishers

Best Crime Nonfiction
A Season in Hell by Robert Fowler, Harper Collins
Hot Art: Chasing Thieves and Detectives Through the Secret World of Stolen Art by Joshua Knelman, Douglas& McIntyre
The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by Steven Laffoley, Pottersfield
The Pirates of Somalia by Jay Bahader, Harper Collins
The Weasel: A Double Life in the Mob by Adrian Humphreys, Wiley

Best Crime Short Story
A New Pair of Pants by Jas. R. Petrin, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
Beer Money by Shane Nelson, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
The Girl with the Golden Hair by Scott Mackay, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
The Perfect Mark by Melodie Campbell, Flash Fiction Magazine
What Kelly Did by Catherine Astolfo, North Word Magazine

Best Unpublished First Novel - "Unhanged Arthur"
Gunning for Bear by Madeleine Harris-Callway
Last of the Independents by Sam Wiebe
Snake in the Snow by William Bonnell
The Rhymester by Valerie A. Drego
Too Far to Fall by Shane Sawyer

Friday, April 20, 2012

2012 Orion Book Award finalists

Finalists have been announced for the Orion Book Award, which recognizes a work of fiction or nonfiction that "addresses the human relationship with the natural world in a fresh, thought-provoking, and engaging manner." The winner will be named May 3. This year's Orion shortlist:

* Oil on Water by Helon Habila (Norton)
* Fire Season by Philip Connors (Ecco)
* Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Vintage)
* The View from Lazy Point by Carl Safina (Picador)
* Raising Elijah by Sandra Steingraber (Da Capo)

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Griffin Poetry Prize announces the 2012 International and Canadian shortlist

The international and Canadian shortlists for the 2012 Griffin Poetry Prize have been announced. Judges Heather McHugh, David O'Meara and Fiona Sampson each read 481 books of poetry from 37 countries, including 19 translations. The winners of the $65,000 international and Canadian prizes will be named June 7. This year's finalists:

International
* Night by David Harsent (Faber & Faber)
* The Chameleon Couch by Yusef Komunyakaa (FSG)
* November by Sean O'Brien (Picador)
* Sobbing Superpower: Selected Poems of Tadeusz Różewicz, translated from the Polish by Joanna Trzeciak (Norton)

Canadian
* Methodist Hatchet by Ken Babstock (House of Anansi Press)
* Killdeer by Phil Hall (BookThug)
* Forge by Jan Zwicky (Gaspereau Press)

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Orange Prize for Fiction 2012 shortlist

The shortlist for The Orange Prize for Fiction 2012 has been announced:

* Esi Edugyan - Half Blood Blues
* Anne Enright - The Forgotten Waltz
* Georgina Harding - Painter of Silence
* Madeline Miller - The Song of Achilles
* Cynthia Ozick - Foreign Bodies
* Ann Patchett - State of Wonder

Hachette leads Bookseller Industry Awards pack (UK)

Hachette UK has topped the shortlist league table for the 2012 Bookseller Industry Awards, the British book trade's premier event, with eight nominations. Hachette is closely followed by HarperCollins and the Pearson/Penguin group, both with seven nominations‚ and Random House, with six

Monday, April 16, 2012

CLA Book of the Year for Children Award Winner (Canada)

From a superb collection of children's literature produced by Canadian authors and publishers in 2011, the Canadian Library Association/Association canadienne des bibliotheques (CLA/ACB) has selected its 2012 winning title for the Book of the Year for Children Award. This year's winner is The Whole Truth by Kit Pearson, published by HarperCollins

Book Swaps for London Campaign

The Book Swaps for London campaign is working towards establishing a London-wide book sharing scheme in London's tube and train stations to be in operation by the opening ceremony of the Olympics. With hundreds of thousands of visitors travelling through London's stations, this highly visible scheme will help to cement London as a capital of literacy as well as sport. By providing our network of volunteers with books, shelves, expertise and support, our first aim is to reach as many of the 700 underground and rail stations in Greater London as we can

Penguin duo picks up Pushkin Press

Penguin Classics Publisher Adam Freudenheim and Stephanie Seegmuller, one of Penguin's former senior business development managers, have become the new owners of Pushkin Press

Pottermore opens its doors for all, JK Rowling announces

JK Rowling has sprung a surprise on her fans by opening the doors to her long-awaited Pottermore website without any warning

Penguin, Macmillan and Nosy Crow talk digital books for children

For much of the book publishing world, the move to digital is all about e-books. That brings big challenges (and regulatory scrutiny) around distribution deals and pricing, but less around the actual content and design. For children's books, it's a different story. The text-centric e-books market has seen children's publishers turning their picture-books into apps. A session at the London Book Fair's Digital Minds conference explored the implications with panelists from publishers Macmillan, Penguin and Nosy Crow, and transmedia production firm Starlight Runner Entertainment

BTB #291: Not Sharing, Not Stealing - Infringement

At the recent OnCopyright 2012 conference, Robert Levine explained for the audience in a keynote speech how the commonly used language of copyright shapes the debate and makes for confusion on the fundamentals

Q&A with author Kate DiCamillo

Kate DiCamillo, 48, one of the most successful children's writers today, won a Newbery Medal for her 2004 novel, "The Tale of Despereaux," about a very small mouse with very large ears who commits a surprising act of bravery

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize finalists

Finalists have been named for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, which honors modern writing in translation with a £10,000 (US$15,959) award that is shared equally by the author and translator. The winner will be announced May 14. This year's shortlisted titles are:

* Blooms of Darkness by Aharon Appelfeld, translated from the Hebrew by Jeffrey M. Green
* Alice by Judith Hermann, translated from the German by Margot Bettauer Dembo
* From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjón, translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb
* The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco, translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon
* New Finnish Grammar by Diego Marani, translated from the Italian by Judith Landry
* Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke, translated from the Chinese by Cindy Carter

2012 Minnesota Book Awards winners

Winners of the 2012 Minnesota Book Awards, a joint venture of Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, the St. Paul Public Library and the city of St. Paul, have been announced. This year's recipients are:

Children's literature: BookSpeak! Poems About Books by Laura Purdie Salas (Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

General nonfiction: Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America by Shawn Lawrence Otto (Rodale)

Genre fiction: Big Wheat by Richard A. Thompson (Poisoned Pen Press)

Memoir and creative nonfiction: A Song at Twilight: Of Alzheimer's and Love by Nancy Paddock (Blueroad Press)

Minnesota: Pioneer Modernists: Minnesota's First Generation of Women Artists by Julie L'Enfant (Afton Press)

Novel and short story: The Law of Miracles by Gregory Blake Smith (University of Massachusetts Press)

Poetry: Whorled by Ed Bok Lee (Coffee House Press)

Young people's literature: With or Without You by Brian Farrey (Simon Pulse/S&S)

Readers' choice award: The Tanglewood Terror by Kurtis Scaletta (Knopf)

Kay Sexton Award for outstanding contributions to Minnesota's literary community: Allan Kornblum, founder of Coffee House Press

Book Artist Award: Bridget O'Malley and Amanda Degener of Cave Paper

Hognander Minnesota History Award: Mary Lethert Wingerd for North Country: The Making of Minnesota (University of Minnesota Press)

2012 Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award winner

The Canadian Library Association has announced the 2012 winner and honour books for the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award. This award is generously sponsored by Library Services Centre. The winner is My Name is Elizabeth! (Kids Can Press), illustrated by Matthew Forsythe and written by Annika Dunklee

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Cúirt International Festival of Literature (Ireland)

Cúirt International Festival of Literature - 24-29 April 2012 - Ireland

The Man Booker Prizes Weekly Roundup - 13 April 2012

The latest news about Man Booker Prize writers and judges - 13 April 2012

Crime Travels: Mystery Preview 2012

Judging from current trends in mysteries and suspense, no place in the world is safe from crime. The best-selling appeal of Stieg Larsson's "Millennium" series remains strong with American readers, and as those fans search for read-alikes, U.S. publishers are importing more mysteries from around the globe

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Kerry Group Irish Novel Of The Year Award shortlist

Writers' Week announced the shortlist for the Kerry Group Novel of the Year Award with a prize fund of €20,000 in Dublin on Wednesday 13th April. The shortlist comprises:

* Kevin Barry, City of Bohane
* Christine Dwyer Hickey, The Cold Eye of Heaven
* Anne Enright, The Forgotten Waltz
* Carlo Gébler, The Dead Eight
* Belinda McKeon, Solace

The winner will be announced at the opening ceremony of Writers' Week 2012 on the 30th May by The President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins

Listowel Writers' Week (Ireland)

Listowel Writers' Week - 30 May to 3 June 2012 - Ireland

2012 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award shortlist

The shortlist for the 2012 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award has been announced:

* Rocks in the Belly by Jon Bauer (British / Australian). Scribe Publications (First Novel)
* The Matter with Morris by David Bergen (Canadian). Harper Collins, Canada
* A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (American) Alfred A. Knopf
* The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Born in Britain, raised in Sierra Leone) Bloomsbury Publishing
* Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor (British) Bloomsbury
* Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes (American) Atlantic Monthly Press (First novel)
* Landed by Tim Pears (British) William Heinemann
* Limassol by Yishai Sarid (Israeli) translated from Hebrew by Barbara Harshav Europa Editions
* The Eternal Son by Cristovão Tezza, (Brazilian) translated from Portuguese by Alison Entrekin, Scribe Publications
* Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin (American) Faber & Faber

Cowbridge Book Festival (UK)

Cowbridge Book Festival (UK)Cowbridge Book Festival - 4-18 May, 2012 - Cowbridge, Wales. featured authors: Adrian Goldsworthy, Alexandra Claire, Andy Hamilton, Ann Cleeves, Anne O'Brien, Anthony Riches, Barry Plummer, Beau Riffenburgh, Belinda Bauer, Ben Kane, Bernard Knight, Bill Rees, Cathy Farr, Christopher Grace, Denis G Campbell, Eddie Butler, James Aitcheson, Jamie Owen, Jane Borodale, Jo Carnegie, John Harrison, Jonathan Hicks, Jon Gower, Jon Simon, Lesley Pearse, Manda Scott, Martin O'Brien, M R Hall, Paul Dowswell, Peter Jackson, Phil Cope, Rhian Edwards, Robert Minhinnick, Roger Garfitt, Roy Noble, Stewart Binns, Susanna Gregory, Terry Walton, Tom Bullough, Tony Curtis, Tristan Hogg

Thursday, April 12, 2012

J.K. Rowling reveals title, plot details of new novel

J.K. Rowling has revealed plot details for her first novel for adults, and as promised it looks to be very different from the Harry Potter series. The book also has a title: The Casual Vacancy

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

2012 Best Translated Book Award Finalists: Fiction and Poetry (USA)

The poetry and fiction finalists for the 2012 Best Translated Book Awards were announced during a special event at the University of Rochester, and on Three Percent, the university's translation-centric website:

Fiction Finalists (in alphabetical order):

Lightning by Jean Echenoz
Translated from the French by Linda Coverdale
(New Press)

Upstaged by Jacques Jouet
Translated from the French by Leland de la Durantaye
(Dalkey Archive Press)

Kornél Esti by Dezső Kosztolányi
Translated from the Hungarian by Bernard Adams
(New Directions)

I Am a Japanese Writer by Dany Laferrière
Translated from the French by David Homel
(Douglas & MacIntyre)

New Finnish Grammar by Diego Marani
Translated from the Italian by Judith Landry
(Dedalus)

Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski
Translated from the Polish by Bill Johnston
(Archipelago Books)

Scars by Juan José Saer
Translated from the Spanish by Steve Dolph
(Open Letter)

Kafka's Leopards by Moacyr Scliar
Translated from the Portuguese by Thomas O. Beebee
(Texas Tech University Press)

In Red by Magdalena Tulli
Translated from the Polish by Bill Johnston
(Archipelago Books)

Never Any End to Paris by Enrique Vila-Matas
Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean
(New Directions)

Poetry Finalists (in alphabetical order):

Hagar Before the Occupation, Hagar After the Occupation by Amal al-Jubouri
Translated from the Arabic by Rebecca Gayle Howell with Husam Qaisi
(Alice James Books)

Last Verses by Jules Laforgue
Translated from the French by Donald Revell
(Omnidawn)

Spectacle & Pigsty by Kiwao Nomura
Translated from the Japanese by Kyoko Yoshida and Forrest Gander
(Omnidawn)

A Fireproof Box by Gleb Shulpyakov
Translated from the Russian by Christopher Mattison
(Canarium Books)

engulf-enkindle by Anja Utler
Translation from the German by Kurt Beals
(Burning Deck)

False Friends by Uljana Wolf
Translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky
(Ugly Duckling Presse)

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Father of murdered Meredith Kercher to release book

The father of Meredith Kercher, the British student murdered in Perugia, is to release a book telling his side of the story six months before Amanda Knox has the chance to give her version of events

State Library of Kansas to partner with Bilbary to enable E-Book purchases

The State Library of Kansas this week said that it will partner with e-bookseller Bilbary to facilitate patrons wishing to buy e-books

The British Science Fiction Association Awards 2011 winner

The acclaimed science fiction writer Christopher Priest, who slated the books shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke award last month, has won the British Science Fiction Association's best novel prize for The Islanders

ebrary to add over 10,000 quality E-books across models for strategic E-book acquisition

To strengthen its new approach to strategic e-book acquisition based on three steps: Transition, Diversify, and Streamline™, ebrary®, a ProQuest business, is expanding its e-book selection across acquisition models. More than 1,800 new e-books from Wiley and 2,300 new titles from publishers including Princeton University Press and World Scientific & Imperial College Press will be available in Academic Complete™, which will offer unlimited access to a growing selection of more than 75,000 quality titles. An additional 6,300 e-books from publishers such as MIT Press, Oxford University Press, and University of Illinois Press will be available through other ebrary models
including patron driven acquisition, short-term loan, and perpetual archive. Titles can be ordered through ebrary as well as partners and book vendors such as YBP

Nominees for the 2012 Hugo Awards and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer have been named

Nominees for the 2012 Hugo Awards and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer have been named. Winners will be announced September 2 at Chicon 7 in Chicago. Finalists for best novel are Among Others by Jo Walton (Tor), A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin (Bantam Spectra), Deadline by Mira Grant (Orbit), Embassytown by China Miéville (Macmillan/Del Rey) and Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey (Orbit). The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer nominees are Mur Lafferty, Stina Leicht, Karen Lord, Brad R. Torgersen and E. Lily Yu

Monday, April 9, 2012

Goldsmith Row Book Market to open in London, UK

Goldsmith Row Book Market, a new Sunday street market, is set to open in Hackney from 9am to 4pm every Sunday from 13 May. Located at the junction of Hackney Road, and Columbia Road flower market, Goldsmith Row, is the beginning of the mile of markets, that winds through the East End every Sunday morning

Meet the Author: Henry Cole

Author and illustrator Henry Cole, creator of Celeste, The Worrywarts, Katy Duck and many other beloved characters, talks about the art of illustrating picture books, his former life as a science teacher, why he loves wordless books, and more

Stephen Leacock Medal for Humor finalists (Canada)

Finalists have been named for the $15,000 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humor, which honors the best book of humor written by a Canadian. The winner will be announced April 26. This year's shortlisted titles are:

* The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
* On the Outside Looking Indian by Rupinder Gill
* The Woefield Poultry Collective by Susan Juby
* Happiness Economics by Shari Lapeña
* Most of Me by Robyn Michele Levy

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Bloomsbury acquires Fairchild Books

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc has announced that it has completed the purchase of Fairchild Books. Fairchild Books, based in New York, is the market-leading publisher of textbooks and educational resources for students of fashion, merchandising, retailing and interior design. It has a revered history dating back to the nineteenth century and a world-class reputation for producing the very best student materials for the growing fashion and design industries. The Fairchild list is highly complementary to Bloomsbury's existing academic list in the Visual Arts, which was bolstered by the acquisition of Berg Publishers in 2008, the launch of the award-winning Berg Fashion Library in 2010 and the acquisition of a fashion photography archive in 2011 with in excess of 600,000 images

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Review: The Patagonian Hare: A Memoir by Claude Lanzmann

LBR review: The Patagonian Hare: A Memoir by Claude Lanzmann, translated by Frank Wynne. Atlantic, 528 pp, £25.00, March, ISBN 978 1 84887 360 5

Pottermore sales surpass £1 million in 3 days

The e-books went on sale just three days ago, and sales have already broken the £1 million mark, according to Pottermore CEO Charlie Redmayne, who was interviewed by The Bookseller's Philip Jones on a radio show called "The Naked Book"

Walter Scott historical fiction shortlist announced

The shortlist for the third Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction has been announced in the Scottish Borders. Sebastian Barry, Patrick de Witt, Esi Edugyan, Alan Hollinghurst, Andrew Miller and Barry Unsworth are this year's contenders for the award. The winner will be announced at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose in June. Previous editions of the £25,000 award went to Andrea Levy for The Long Song and Hilary Mantel for Wolf Hall. The shortlist for the prize was announced by the Duke of Buccleuch at the launch of the Borders Book Festival programme

Eason's to close two shops and cut 25 jobs (Northern Ireland)

Around 25 jobs are to go as Irish book giant Eason's shuts two stores and an office in Northern Ireland. The bookseller blamed declining sales for its decision to pull down the shutters in Carryduff, Co Down and Westwood Shopping Centre in west Belfast next month

Hay Festival 2012: line-up announced

Sir Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis and Sir Terry Pratchett are among the headline names at this year's Hay Festival

Amazon: £7bn sales, no UK corporation tax

Amazon.co.uk, Britain's biggest online retailer, generated sales of more than £3.3bn in the country last year but paid no corporation tax on any of the profits from that income - and is under investigation by the UK tax authorities - Guardian

Google Ends eBook agreement with indies

Representatives of Google contacted the American Booksellers Association and Powell's Books to announce that it will end its Google eBooks reseller program worldwide. In February, it had seemed as if independent booksellers were getting a reprieve when Google reinstated some affiliate stores that had low sales. But in yet another sign of industry consolidation, Google will start selling e-books solely through its recently launched Google Play beginning January 31, 2013

The Man Booker Prizes Weekly Roundup - 5 April 2012

The latest news about Man Booker Prize writers and judges - 5 April 2012

Friday, April 6, 2012

The rise of e-reading (USA)

21% of Americans have read an e-book. The increasing availability of e-content is prompting some to read more than in the past and to prefer buying books to borrowing them

Some e-book publishers begin settlement talks; Apple holding out

Three e-book publishers are nearing a settlement over an e-book price-fixing case in the US and Europe, according to sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal. But not everyone is on board - Apple and two other publishers are allegedly holding out, though the situation was described as "fluid" and could change as a lawsuit filing looms

The Missing 20th Century: How Copyright Protection Makes Books Vanish

Because of the strange distortions of copyright protection, there are twice as many newly published books available on Amazon from 1850 as there are from 1950

Walter Scott prize for historical fiction finalists

The finalists for the Walter Scott prize for historical fiction are:

* On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry
* The Sisters Brothers by Patrick de Witt
* Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
* The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst
* Pure by Andrew Miller
* The Quality of Mercy by Barry Unsworth

The winner will be announced June 16, 2012

2012 Jackson Poetry Prize recipient is Henri Cole

Henri Cole has won the $50,000 Jackson Poetry Prize, sponsored by Poets & Writers and honoring "an American poet of exceptional talent who deserves wider recognition" and "designed to provide what all poets need: time and the encouragement to write." Cole has published eight collections of poetry, including Touch (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), and Middle Earth (FSG), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Cole has won the Kingsley Tufts Award, the Rome Prize, the Berlin Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Lenore Marshall Award. He teaches at Ohio State University and is poetry editor of the New Republic

Winners of the 2012 Indies Choice and E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards announced

Winners of the 2012 Indies Choice Book Awards, honoring books members of the American Booksellers Association most enjoyed selling, are:

Adult fiction: The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Adult nonfiction: Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton (Random House)

Adult Debut: The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (Random House)

Young Adult: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys (Philomel)

The winners of the E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards were:

Middle Reader (a tie between works by a brother and sister!):

The Apothecary by Maile Meloy, illustrated by Ian Schoenherr (Putnam)
Wildwood by Colin Meloy, illustrated by Carson Ellis (Balzer + Bray)

Picture Book: I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen (Candlewick Press)

Also new bookseller Ann Patchett won Most Engaging Author

'Three Cups of Tea' author to repay charity $1 mln

A US author nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan has agreed to repay $1 million to his charity after a probe into financial misdealings. Greg Mortenson, who wrote the best-selling "Three Cups of Tea" account about his work, has also agreed to resign from his charity's board for "financial transgressions" in a settlement reached with the Montana attorney general

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Donner Prize 2011-12 shortlist

Nominees have been announced for the $50,000 Donner Prize, which celebrates the best public policy book written by a Canadian, the National Post reported. A winner will be named May 1. This year's Donner finalists are:

Democratizing the Constitution: Reforming Responsible Government by Peter Aucoin, Mark D. Jarvis and Lori Turnbull

Toward Improving Canada's Skilled Immigration Policy: An Evaluation Approach by Charles M. Beach, Alan G. Green and Christopher

Museum Pieces: Toward the Indigenization of Canadian Museums by Ruth B. Phillips

XXL: Obesity and the Limits of Shame by Neil Seeman and Patrick Luciani

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Library of America to release 'Little House' books

Laura Ingalls Wilder, who already holds a special place in the hearts of millions of parents and children, soon will be added to the country's official literary canon. The Library of America announced Tuesday that it will issue a boxed two-volume set this fall of Wilder's "Little House" series, including "Little House on the Prairie" and "Little House in the Big Woods." Wilder based the books on her family's experiences as pioneers in the 19th century. She died in 1957 at age 90

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Ideas that last: a new book prize (UK)

The Observer is sponsoring a new annual prize to decide which book of ideas from the crop published 50 years ago has had the most lasting influence on society's thinking. So, taking the class of 1962, the Bristol festival's Best Book of Ideas prize will come from this shortlist of 10:

1) Another Country James Baldwin

2) Capitalism and Freedom Milton Friedman

3) A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess

4) Day (originally published as The Accident) Elie Wiesel

5) My Land and My People: The Original Autobiography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet Dalai Lama XIV

6) The Other America Michael Harrington

7) Sex and the Single Girl Helen Gurley Brown

8) Silent Spring Rachel Carson

9) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Thomas S Kuhn

10) Toward a Psychology of Being Abraham Harold Maslow

The winner, chosen by the festival board, will be announced on 21 May

Libraries boycott Random House over e-book prices (Canada)

Libraries on Nova Scotia's South Shore are boycotting Random House, one of the world's largest book publishers, over what they call unfair e-book pricing. The company began charging public libraries up to three times the retail price for downloadable books last month. For example, the price for libraries for a copy of Catherine the Great, Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie spiked to $85 in late March from $30 in January, according to the South Shore Public Libraries website

2012 English 4-11 Awards for the Best Picture Books of 2011

The Shortlist for the 2012 Awards is as follows

Feel the Force! Pop-Up Physics Fun, Tom Adams, illus. by Thomas Flintham, Templar

Picasso's Trousers, Nicholas Allan, Hutchinson

Let's Look at Dinosaurs, Frances Barry, Walker Books

The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man, Michael Chabon, illus. by Jake Parker, HarperCollins

Dolphin Baby, Nicola Davies, illus. by Brita Granström, Walker Books

My Henry, Judith Kerr, HarperCollins

I Want My Hat Back, Jon Klassen, Walker Books

Pop-Up London, Jennie Maizels, paper engineering by Richard Ferguson, Walker Books

Charles Dickens: Scenes from an Extraordinary Life, Mick Manning & Brita Granstrom, Frances Lincoln

No!, David McPhail, Frances Lincoln

Little Manfred, Michael Morpurgo, illus. by Michael Foreman, HarperCollins

Into the Unknown, Stewart Ross, illus. by Stephen Biesty, Walker Books

Wonderstruck, Brian Selznick, Scholastic

It's A Book, Lane Smith, Macmillan

Press Here, Hervé Tullet, Chronicle Books

France hikes VAT on books to 7%

Most would agree that booksellers in France are better off than elsewhere, with subsidies from the governement and a fixed book price. But it is still one of the country’s least profitable businesses and yesterday, as the application of a VAT rate increase of 5.5% to 7% on books went into effect, it added to booksellers’ daily struggle. The decision made by President Nicolas Sarkozy to raise the VAT as part of an austerity measure is seen by many as extremely damaging to booksellers, in particular to the 3,000+ independent bookshops

Picador names Stephen Morrison V-P and Publisher

Effective April 30, Stephen Morrison of Penguin Books will step into the role of v-p and publisher for Picador, reporting to Jonathan Galassi and Stephen Rubin. The hire comes shortly after the announcement that Frances Coady was stepping down

The 2012 Derringer Award winners

The 2012 Derringer Award winners:

Best Flash Story: "Lessons Learned" by Allan Leverone

Best Short Story: "Touch of Death" by B.V. Lawson

Best Long Story: Tie "A Drowning at Snow's Cut" by Art Taylor "Brea's Tale" by Karen Pullen

Best Novelette: "Where Billy Died" by Earl Staggs

John Arden, British playwright, dies at 81

John Arden, a major British playwright of the 1950s and 1960s, whose politically engaged, theatrically inventive and conscience-provoking works were often compared to Brecht’s but have been only intermittently revived and rarely performed in the United States, has died. He was 81.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Kevin Barry interview

Kevin Barry won The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2012 for his short story 'Beer Trip to Llandudno'. Hours after winning, author and Booktrust web editor Nikesh Shukla met Kevin in an Oxford beer garden to discuss his win, how he writes short stories and what the best ale he's ever had is

PA Bulletin 2 April 2012

PA Bulletin 2 April 2012, from The Publishers Association, UK, is now available online #publisher #publishing