People: Alexievich Wins Nobel, and More

Publishers Lunch

Belarus journalist and author Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday, cited by the Swedish Academy for "her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time." Though Alexievich had been installed as the bettors' favorite over the past few weeks, she is another instance of an under-translated Nobel winner in the English language: her oral history Voices From Chernobyl (1997) was published in 2006 by Dalkey Archive Press and later Picador, after the book (with Keith Gessen's translation) won a National Book Critics Circle Award.

Earlier, Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War, was published by Norton and Chatto & Windus in 1992 with a translation by Robin Whitby. Norton announced they are "quickly reprinting" the book in hardcover and paperback, with paperbacks shipping as soon as Monday, October 12. Other books include War's Unwomanly Face; The Last Witnesses: The Book of Unchildlike Stories; and Enchanted with Death. And UK-based Fitzcarraldo Press will publish Alexievich's most recent work, Second-hand Time: The Demise of the Red (Wo)man (2013), next year.

Penguin Random House announced a number of appointments for their centralized adult library and academic marketing efforts. Skip Dye will lead the newly unified cross-company Penguin Random House Adult Library Group, reporting to Jaci Updike, in addition to his role as vp, library sales. Jennifer Childs is now vp, library marketing; Michael Gentile moves up to vp, director, academic marketing for Random House, Crown, Penguin Random House Publisher Services; and Alan Walker moves up to vp, director, academic marketing for the Penguin Publishing Group.