Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Publishers Lunch


Claudia Gabel has been promoted to editorial director at Harper Children's.

Amy Stapp is joining Wolfson Literary Agency as of November 1. She was previously an editor with Macmillan/Tor.

Jason Kirk has been promoted to executive editor at Amazon's 47North and Skyscape imprints.

Maria Mann has joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as publicity associate. She was previously at Page Street publishing.

At Chronicle Books, Julia Marvel has joined as designer, children's. Previously she was associate designer at Abrams Books. Patrick Rafanan has joined as marketing photographer and visual content coordinator. Previously he was an ecommerce photographer at Randa Accessories. Wendy Thorpe has been promoted to senior production manager.

Adene Corns, vice president, director warehouse club sales, will retire from Simon & Schuster on January 30, 2019. Corns joined Simon & Schuster as a national account manager for the trade sales division in 1994.
Awards
Canada's Governor General's Literary Awards were presented in seven categories, with The Red Word By Sarah Henstra winning the fiction prize.

Goodreads opened voting for their tenth annual Choice Awards after celebrating the occasion -- and a number of their award-winning authors -- at an event in New York Monday night.

The UK announced nominations in 11 categories for their "National Book Awards," to be awarded on November 20.

Border by Kapka Kassabova wins British Academy’s £25,000 Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize


Border by Kapka Kassabova wins British Academy’s £25,000 Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize

for Global Cultural Understanding 2018

 

#AlRodhanPrize

 

·      “Extraordinary” book by Bulgarian-born writer chosen to receive international award

London: Kapka Kassabova is today, Tuesday 30 October, announced as the winner of the British Academy’s 6th Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding 2018, for her book Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe.

Published by Granta Books, Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe, is an exploration of the border zone between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece – a close study of how borders shape people’s lives. Kassabova returns to the land of her childhood, intricately weaving the individual stories of the people she meets there into the wider history of the region.

Kassabova, was born in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1973. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, she emigrated with her family to New Zealand in 1992, where she studied French and Russian Literature at university. In 2005 she moved to Edinburgh and now lives in the Scottish Highlands. She is a writer of poetry, fiction and narrative non-fiction.

The £25,000 prize was presented by Chair of the jury and Foreign Secretary of the British Academy, Professor Ash Amin CBE FBA, at a ceremony at the British Academy in central London.

Commenting on behalf of the jury he said: 

“Kapka Kassabova has written an extraordinary book, an important contribution to the urgent debate about global cultural understanding. Border has an original, compelling narrative which explores the notion of the border, not just as a frontier but as a psychological and cultural dynamic. The book is a description of a meeting place between past and present, peoples, culture and nature, written in a mesmerising style, peopled with vivid characters and full of sharply drawn encounters. Border invests the theme of cultural understanding with a magical quality, mixing observation, biography and lyricism.”

Speaking on behalf of the British Academy, Chief Executive Alun Evans added: 
“The British Academy proudly champions the humanities and social sciences, and these subjects’ power to illustrate and illuminate. Without well-researched, deeply knowledgeable books like this we cannot begin to get to grips with the important cultural challenges we all face in today’s world. We are delighted to award this year’s Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize to Kapka Kassabova.” 

On publication, Border was met with critical acclaim. The Sunday Times called it a “smokily intense and quiveringly powerful travel book”.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times wrote: “Kassabova is a poet, and her writing is beautiful - moving and witty by turns... In a world ever more divided, ever more threatened by Mexican walls, restrictive new passports and fear of the unknown, we need books like this.” 

Together with Professor Ash Amin, this year’s judges are historian and political scientist Rana Mitter FBA; social anthropologist Dame Henrietta Moore DBE FBA; writer and broadcaster Professor Patrick Wright FBA and writer Madeleine Bunting. 

Alongside Kapka Kassabova, the five other books on this year’s shortlist were: The Islamic EnlightenmentThe Modern Struggle Between Faith and Reason by Christopher de Bellaigue, (The Bodley Head); Al-Britannia: A Journey Through Muslim Britain by James Fergusson, (Bantam Press); Black Tudors: The Untold Story by Miranda Kaufmann, (Oneworld); I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad by Souad Mekhennet, (Virago) and Tears of RangiExperiments Across Worlds by Dame Anne Salmond (Auckland University Press).

The British Academy’s prestigious international prize was established in 2013, to reward and celebrate the best works of non-fiction that demonstrate rigour and originality, have contributed to global cultural understanding and illuminate the interconnections and divisions that shape cultural identity worldwide.

The last three winners were Timothy Garton Ash for Free Speech (2017), Professor Carole Hillenbrand for Islam: A New Historical Introduction (2016), and Dr Neil MacGregor for A History of the World in 100 Objects and Germany: Memories of a Nation (2015).

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Publishers Lunch



Simon & Schuster is launching a new imprint, Avid Reader Press, inspired by "the spirit invoked" in former Simon & Schuster editor-in-chief Robert Gottlieb's memoir Avid Reader, with its first titles launching in late 2019 or early 2020. Jofie Ferrari-Adler will serve as vice president and publisher of the new line, and Ben Loehnen is vice president and editor in chief, both moving over from their current positions as executive editors at S&S. They will hire "at least one more senior editorial partner who will specialize in fiction, while also building a dedicated staff across editorial, publicity, and marketing."

Ferrari-Adler and Loehnen said in a joint statement: "In our experience the most rewarding publishing—for writers, for agents, for booksellers, and, ultimately, for readers—has three common denominators: great books, published with intense focus, in true partnership. We want to put together a small band of cheerful literary warriors who publish every book with avidity."

President of Simon & Schuster adult publishing Jon Karp said, "One day, I hope Avid Reader will be listed among other notable spin-offs, just as PayPal was spun off from eBay, or Rhoda was spun off from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, or Huckleberry Finn was spun off from Tom Sawyer. In the meantime, we look forward to seeing the fruits of this exciting new publishing enterprise."

CEO of Bertelsmann-backed online education company Udacity Vishal Makhijani "has decided to move on to new challenges." Founder and executive chairman Sebastian Thrun will run the company while it searches for a new ceo. Last month TechCrunch had reported that Udacity laid off five percent of their employees globally "based on carefully considered, strategic business decisions."

Tessa Meischeid has joined Penguin Children's as senior publicist. Previously, she was associate publicist at Abrams Children's.

President of Lion Forge Geoff Gerber left the company in August, and created Anchorplate IP, a new consultancy.

New novel from Morrinsville author Vaughan Rapatahana



Morrinsville author Vaughan Rapatahana has a new novel out with the intriguing title of Novel.

Rapatahana’s new book moves from a violent murder in a Kiwi meatworks to the Philippines, Hong Kong and People’s Republic of China. It mirrors in many ways the prolific writer's contribution to publications in countries worldwide, from the UK to France to Asia and the US. 

His career has involved contributing to dozens of literary journals in various languages and publishing academic text and fiction, and now Rapatahana is entering retirement and looking to write the follow-up to Novel.

Vaughan said money and time are restrictions, which is why family are helpful. “My daughter Pauline Canlas Wu – a tattoo artist in Hong Kong -  illustrated Novel, while my wife Leticia Canlas helped out on the book too.”

It was 1977-79 when the then-24 year old taught in Kerikeri then later returned to live at Pakaraka and then Awarua, after working in the tiny republic of Nauru.

During his Northland years, Vaughan says literature was at a low ebb. “If there was stuff going on, I wasn’t much aware of it. I was starting to write myself. I got a couple of stories published in the PPTA Journal.”

“I remember going to see Sam Hunt and Gary McCormick up north about 1981. Sam Hunt definitely was an inspiration. We have since sporadically kept in touch, eh.”

Talk of the popular poet gets Vaughan namedropping contemporaries who have made a mark in NZ literature – fair enough considering Vaughan has been inside schools, universities and workplaces with David Eggleton, Roger Horrocks and James Norcliffe, and now sees a lot of fellow Waikato poet, Bob Orr. 

With the rate of creative writing that Vaughan publishes, one would think he has been going forever, but Vaughan feels it was only ten years ago that he came into his own as a writer. Vaughan says his books have “probably not” made a lot of money. “But I’m not in it for the money, mate.” He chose Rangitawa Publishing for Novel because he says it ties in which the marginalised perspective from which he writes.

Amongst other achievements, Vaughan has won the Proverse Poetry Prize, his poetry collection Atonement was nominated for a National Book Award in Philippines, and his writing has been published in French, Tagalog and te reo Māori. His poem Rangiaowhia has been shortlisted for the NZSA Canterbury Heritage Book and Writing Awards 2018.

 

*


RRP $38. 

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NZSA Canterbury Heritage Literary Awards


Last week NZSA Canterbury announced the winners, runners -up and specially commended writers who had been selected by our judges in the Heritage Literary Awards.  The competition was nation-wide and attracted entries from leading publishers and writers throughout New Zealand. All the judges – Prof Tom Brooking (nonfiction books), Fiona Farrell (novels), Owen Marshall (short prose) and Bernadette Hall (poetry) spoke of the high standard of the entries and the difficulty of making a decision.

The most popular section was for non-fiction books and there were nearly 40 of these -probably most of those that were published during the past year. The fiction category attracted around 20 entries and again they were of a high standard.

The function which was part of the Christchurch’s Heritage Week celebration was held in St Michael’s Church, a magnificent wooden building dating back to the 1870s and a very fitting venue.

Ngāi Tahu led by Sir Tipene O’Regan welcomed guests from all over New Zealand – nearly 100 attended. They also rose to celebrate the non-fiction winner Tāngāta Ngāi Tahu: People of Ngāi Tahu.  This is a selection of biographical studies of various members of the iwi.

As judge Tom Brooking wrote:

This is a wonderful book. The fifty lively biographies bring these tipuna vibrantly to life. The quality of the entries is consistent throughout and credit must go to the highly qualified contributors and expert editors. And what a fascinating cast occupies the pages of this exceptional biographical dictionary. They range from well-known national figures through soldiers and even singers who became popular in London, to local community leaders little known outside their often remote localities.  Despite their different lives in time and place each ancestor shared in common deep knowledge of southern Māori culture and tradition and fought long and hard to preserve it.

Helen Brown and Tarekei Norton, eds. Tāngāta Ngāi Tahu: People of Ngāi Tahu. Volume One. Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu/Bridget Williams Books, Wellington/Christchurch.

 2017

The runner-up in this section was John Wilson with his study Local Lives: A History of Addington, Addington Neighbourhood Association/Caxton

Again the judge said:

John Wilson’s excellent suburban history of Addington is ... another welcome addition to our rather sparse collection of studies of the places where the majority of people in cities live - the suburb.

The fiction prize went to Fiona Kidman for her new novel This Mortal Boy. Fiona Farrell who presented the award said that ‘it has been a real privilege to read such  a wonderful book.’  This is the story of Albert Black, known as the 'jukebox killer'.  He, was only twenty when he was convicted of murdering another young man in a fight at a milk bar in Auckland on 26 July 1955. His crime fuelled growing moral panic about teenagers, and he was to hang less than five months later, the second-to-last person to be executed in New Zealand.

The runner us was David Hill for his Young Adult novel Finding and there was a special mention for Tree Worship by Jack Ross.

The short prose section was won by Caroline Barron of Auckland for her entry ‘Linette and Montague’. Owen Marshall said of the winner:

It has first person, present tense narration and this together with the crisp, contemporary language gives the piece pace and draws the reader in.  The story is based on the narrator's search in Archives NZ, Auckland, for evidence of a paternal grandfather, his relationship with Linette and their illegitimate child.  The factual basis gives credibility and relevance, but the account of the search is enhanced by elements of surmise and speculation.  As well imaginative touches add to the story, as when the narrator visualises the court room scene in which Montague Stanaway is ordered to pay expenses related to the birth of his child… A balanced, impressive short piece.

The runner up was Susan Cambridge with Dea’s Story – a tale of colonial society.

 

The poetry section was won by Lucy D’Ath:  fight / flight.  This suggested the horrific rhythm of the Christchurch earthquakes and  the runner-up was Into the Audit  by John Ewing

 

The full list of prize winners is as follows:

Poetry

The winner is:    fight / flight by Lucy D’Ath

The runner-up is:  Into the Audit by John Ewing

 

Short Form - prose

WINNER

Linette and Montague by Caroline Barron

RUNNER UP

Dea's Story by Susan Cambridge

 

Non-fiction book

First Prize

Helen Brown and Takerei Norton, eds. Tāngāta Ngāi Tahu: People of Ngāi Tahu. Volume One. Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu/Bridget Williams Books, Wellington/Christchurch, 2017. 352pp

Runner Up

John Wilson, Local Lives: A History of Addington, Addington Neighbourhood Association/Caxton, Christchurch, 2017. 320pp

Highly Commended

John Newton, Hard Frost: Structures of Feeling in New Zealand Literature 1908-1945, Victoria University Press, Wellington, 2017. 368pp

Lachy Paterson and Angela Wanhalla, He Reo Wāhine: Māori Women’s Voices from the Nineteenth Century, Auckland University Press, 2017, 372pp

Grey Ryan and Geoff Watson, Sport and the New Zealanders: A History, Auckland University Press, 2018. 390 pp. 

 

Fiction Book

The winner is This Mortal Boy by Fiona Kidman. Penguin/ Random House

Runner up is Finding by David Hill Penguin/Random House

Special mention: Tree Worship by Jack Ross

 

I would like to thank our sponsors: the Christchurch City Council, Scorpio Books and Wily Publications Ltd.

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

The Roundup with PW

Amazon Exec Addresses Negative 'Myths': A warehouse operations executive for Amazon says critiques of working conditions there are based on 'myths, not reality.'

#MeToo Writer Signs with Scribner: Moira Donegan, who created the "Shitty Media Men List" as part of the #MeToo movement, signed a book deal with Scribner.

Editor Roger Donald Dies at 82: Donald, who worked at Little, Brown for 30 years as senior editor, editor-in-chief, and publisher, passed away on October 11.

Author Examines 'Race on Campus': Julie J. Park discusses misconceptions about race relations on college campuses in her book geared toward educators.

12 Cringe-Worthy Book Covers: Check out cover art for budget editions of Wordsworth Classics that feature Photoshopping, stock images, and more.

Off the Shelf



 

You'll Fall in Love with the Characters in This Utterly Charming Novel
     

Once in a while, I come across a rare, wonderful book that I just want to hug to my chest  as soon as I’ve finished the last page. A book where the characters have become like dear friends and I feel so grateful to have been privvy to their lives for a brief while. As I finished reading THE TOWER, THE ZOO, AND THE TORTOISE, with a delighted smile on my face and tears on my cheeks, I knew it was one of those special books.

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Latest from The Bookseller


Steven Lotinga
A report conducted by consultancy Frontier Economics has found a "strong" economic case for taking VAT off digital publications in the UK, as permitted under newly agreed European Union rules.
Booksellers Association
The Booksellers Association is launching an indie Children’s Book of the Month promotion following on from last year’s Children’s Book of the Season campaign.
Mr B's Emporium
Mr B's Emporium in Bath has smashed its original crowdfunding target of £45,000 to expand its premises, with the total raised now exceeding £48,500.
Bloomsbury
An investigation into “corruption and cover-ups” at the heart of the Catholic Church will be published by Bloomsbury next year.
Kathleen MacMahon
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Fiona Mozley
Fiona Mozley has won the Polari First Book Prize 2018 for her Man Booker-shortlisted debut, Elmet (John Murray).



Rebel Girls
".
Juno Dawson
Unstoppable Film & Television has acquired the production rights to Juno Dawson’s upcoming YA novel Meat Market (Quercus Children’s Books), about a 16-year-old girl who is catapulted from her South London council estate to the international world of fashion.
Madeline Toy
Madeline Toy has joined Bath Festivals as head of literature programming.
Anne Charnock
Amazon Publishing’s science fiction and fantasy imprint 47North has signed the recent winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award, Anne Charnock, for a further novel, set in the “disturbing near-future”.

  



 
Booksellers Association
The Booksellers Association is launching an indie Children’s Book of the Month promotion following on from last year’s Children’s Book of the Season campaign.
Mr B's Emporium
Mr B's Emporium in Bath has smashed its original crowdfunding target of £45,000 to expand its premises, with the total raised now exceeding £48,500.
Bloomsbury
An investigation into “corruption and cover-ups” at the heart of the Catholic Church will be published by Bloomsbury next year.
Kathleen MacMahon
Kathleen MacMahon is moving from Sphere to Penguin Ireland with a "dazzling" new novel, following a deal closed at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Fiona Mozley
Fiona Mozley has won the Polari First Book Prize 2018 for her Man Booker-shortlisted debut, Elmet (John Murray).
   

Rebel Girls
The founders of the Rebel Girls books have raised $218,937 to publish a new book, a "guided journal that helps girls train their rebel spirit and lead the revolution of our time".
Juno Dawson
Unstoppable Film & Television has acquired the production rights to Juno Dawson’s upcoming YA novel Meat Market (Quercus Children’s Books), about a 16-year-old girl who is catapulted from her South London council estate to the international world of fashion.
Madeline Toy
Madeline Toy has joined Bath Festivals as head of literature programming.
Anne Charnock
Amazon Publishing’s science fiction and fantasy imprint 47North has signed the recent winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award, Anne Charnock, for a further novel, set in the “disturbing near-future”.
Seamus O
Fleet has acquired the first book of Observer columnist Seamas O’Reilly, a memoir called Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?
 
Snow Dragon
Simon & Schuster Children’s UK will this Christmas publish a short story about a snow dragon by Abi Elphinstone in picture book format, with illustrations by Fiona Woodcock.