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National Book Award Finalists Announced
The National Book Foundation has announced the finalists for the 2009 National Book Awards. One debut fiction writer made the list, as well as three previous NBA finalists and the second graphic novel in the Awards’ history. Farrar, Straus & Giroux landed three nominations and Holt two giving Macmillan five nominees. Random House has three finalists, one from Little Random and two from Knopf; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Norton each nabbed two.
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Herta Mueller Wins Literature Nobel
Romanian-born German author Herta Mueller won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature.
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NBCC Celebrates 35th Anniversary of Awards with Roundtable
The National Book Critics Circle is celebrating the 35th anniversary of its awards this year. As part of the festivities, E.L. Doctorow and John Ashbery, who won the first NBCC Awards in fiction and poetry (for Ragtime and Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, respectively) will talk about the organization’s legacy at a discussion on September 12.
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Bellwether Prize to Accept Submissions September 1
The Bellwether Prize committee will accept submissions from September 1 through October 2 for the 2010 award. The literary prize, established by Barbara Kingsolver, supports the writing and publication of serious literary fiction addressing issues of social justice in culture and human relations. It has been awarded in even-numbered years for the past decade.
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PubWest Awards Rittenhouse to Chuck Hutchinson
Charles “Chuck” S. Hutchinson Jr. has won the 2009 Jack D. Rittenhouse Award. The award, which honors people who have made outstanding contributions to the book community in the West, is given by the Publishers Association of the West.
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Michael Thomas Wins IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
Michael Thomas has won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for his debut novel, Man Gone Down, which Black Cat, a paperback original imprint of Grove/Atlantic, published in 2007. The IMPAC Dublin is the world’s richest literary prize, worth €100,000 (almost US $150,000).
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Brenda Burchard Wins Jan Nathan Scholarship
Brenda Burchard manages Safer Society Press, an arm of the Safer Society Foundation, a non-profit that provides resources for the prevention and treatment of sexual abuse. Burcard said she plans to use the knowledge she gains at Stanford to generate revenue for the press and market titles using social media.
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'Blood Ties' Takes Red House Prize
Sophie McKenzie's Blood Ties, a YA thriller that explores genetic engineering, has won Britain’s Red House Children's Book Award, the only prize voted for entirely by children (this year, more than 143,000). U.S. rights, which are held by agent Rosemary Canter, have not yet been sold.
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James King Wins Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award
A freelance corporate writer has won this year’s Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. James King, author of Bill Warrington’s Last Chance, landed a $25,000 contract with Viking. “This is an unbelievable feeling,” King said to the small crowd gathered at Battery Gardens restaurant in Manhattan this morning. “It’s a dream come true.”
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Arabic-Language Children’s Prize to Launch
Arabic-language children’s publishers have a new book prize: the Etisalat Award for Arab Children’s literature, which promises one million dirham ($270,000) to the best Arab children’s book of the year. The award will be presented for the first time during the annual Sharjah World Book Fair this November.
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Patterson Among Five Reading Innovators Honored by National Book Foundation
The board of the National Book Foundation has awarded its first Innovations in Reading Prizes. The board selected the winners—one individual and four organizations—because of their innovative efforts to share their love of books and reading at a grassroots level, both in their communities and online. Each winner will receive $2,500 and a certificate.
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The Edgars Celebrate 63 Years
In Edgar Allan Poe’s bicentennial year, the Mystery Writers of America paid more than usual tribute to the mystery genre’s founder at their annual dinner, held the night of April 30 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan.
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Pannell Awards Announced
The 2009 Pannell Awards have been announced. In the children's specialty category, the winner is Mrs. Nelson’s Toy and Book Shop in LaVerne, Calif. In the general bookstore category, the winner is Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati, with honorable mention going to That Bookstore in Blytheville, in Blytheville, Ark.
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L.A. Times Book Prizes Announced
The Los Angeles Times presented its 29th annual book prizes on Friday night, on the eve of its annual Festival of Books.
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Willen Accepts Lifetime Achievement Award
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt senior editor Drenka Willen was in London to accept the sixth annual lifetime achievement award for international publishing.
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The 2009 Pulitzer Prizes for Letters and Drama
Adding a Pulitzer to her National Book Award, Annette Gordon-Reed has been awarded the prize for her monumental historical work, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (Norton). The book also won the 2009 National Book Award for nonfiction.
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Howe Wins Lilly Poetry Prize
Novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet Fanny Howe has been awarded one of the nation’s largest literary prizes, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for Life Achievement.
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Big Night for National Book Critics Circle
At last Thursday's National Book Critics Circle Awards dinner, Roberto Bolaño and Dexter Filkins were the winners in the fiction and nonfiction categories at a well-attended ceremony at the New School in New York City. The status of book reviewing was the theme for the evening, and in his acceptance speech after receiving the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, Ron Charles,...
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Filkins, Bolaño Among 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award Winners
At a well-attended ceremony at the New School in New York City, the National Book Critics Circle gave out the its awards for publishing year 2008.
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Finalists Announced for $100,000 Jewish Literature Prize
The five fiction finalists for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature is: Elisa Albert for TheBook of Dahlia (Free Press); Sana Krasikov for One More Year (Spiegel & Grau); Anne Landsman for The Rowing Lesson (Soho Press); Dalia Sofer for The Septembers of Shiraz (Ecco); and Anya Ulinich for Petropolis (Viking Penguin).