News from Publishers Lunch

New Imprints

Author and artist Christopher Myers will launch a new imprint, Make Me A World, with Random House Children's Books in 2018, overseen by Knopf Young Readers publisher Jenny Brown. The imprint and name "reflects Myers's vision: to publish a selection of books that open up new worlds, possibilities, and pathways for young readers of all ages", and will launch with Child of the Universe by astronomer Ray Jayawardhana; the picture book Mama Mable’s All-Gal Big Band Jazz Extravaganza! by Annie Sieg; and the inspirational memoir Walk Toward the Rising Sun by Ger Duan.

Myers said in the announcement: "Every day in the newspapers we see how much stories matter, the stories we tell each other and ourselves, and for too long many stories have been neglected, many storytellers ignored. Each of these untold stories represents a world that has been erased. My father [Walter Dean Myers] built worlds for countless children in his stories. He wanted to make sure no child felt erased as he had, growing up poor and Black in Harlem in the 1940s, where brown, bright faces like his own were nowhere to be found in the pages of books. MAKE ME A WORLD will continue that work, recognizing storytellers from all walks of life that can build for contemporary children a sense that they too have the ability in their creative hands, in their hearts, to build their own worlds."

Obituary

Matthew Evans, 74, former head of Faber and Faber (and husband of agent Caroline Michel) died on Wednesday following a long illness. He joined the publisher in 1964, and became chairman and and managing director in 1980. Current Faber chief executive Stephen Page commented, "He was one of the most singular and important publishing leaders of his generation. Passionate, energetic and articulate, his contribution to Faber is incalculable."

Evans's friend Melvyn Bragg call him "one of the most remarkable men of his generation" and told the Guardian, "His great gifts included bringing on authors like Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Hanif Kureishi, Kazuo Ishiguro, William Golding, Paul Auster and many others, some of whom had been there in Matthew's early days but all of whom were devoted to him and deeply respectful of his rigid integrity."

Settlement

As expected, the legal settlement of the class action suit brought by authors against Harlequin which we reported on in April was approved by the court. Qualifying authors with contracts signed between 1990 and 2004, who were seeking additional payment for books for which Harlequin licensed ebook rights to its own subsidiaries, will share a pool of just over $3 million (with another $1.05 million going to attorneys and other costs). Complete information is posted at the settlement site.

Awards

Esme Weijun Wang's The Collected Schizophrenias has won Graywolf Press's Nonfiction Prize -- which includes publication of the manuscript and a $12,000 advance.