Reading the Mythopoeic Children’s Award Finalists
Helen Lowe picks her winner................
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Get your kids to review their favourite books to be on the New Zealand Book Council website and win great prizes from Scholastic!
Top reviewers and their schools will each be in to win a fantastic prize pack of books from Scholastic NZ every two months, with the first selections to be made on Friday 30 July.
The best reviewer aged between 6-8 years, 9–12 years, and 13+ will each receive a pack of books courtesy of Scholastic NZ. These reviews will also be published in The School Library, the Book Council’s reviews publication sent to member schools.
The top three students from each age group who submit reviews for the website will also be rewarded. Their reviews will be published on the Book Council site in the ‘Your Reviews’ section of the Kids’ Education site.
The school that encourages the largest number of entries from their students in relation to its size will receive a pack of new release Scholastic NZ books for their library.
To submit a review or three and be in to win these fantastic books, simply email Sarah at education@bookcouncil.org.nz with your entries, including the name and age of the author, and name of the school in the top right-hand corner of the word or PDF document.
For further information please contact Sarah Forster, Education Manager, education@bookcouncil.org.nz, ph; (04) 499 1569, fax: (04) 499 1424
Scholastic Increases First Printing of Mockingjay, the Final Book of The Hunger Games Trilogy, to 1.2 Million Copies
Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education, and media company, announced today that it has increased the first printing of Mockingjay, the final book in the nationally bestselling , The Hunger Games trilogy to 1.2 million, from a previously announced 750,000 copies.
First published in September 2008, Hunger Games was an instant bestseller, appealing to both teen readers and adults. It has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for more than 93 consecutive weeks since publication, and there are more than 2.3 million copies of the first two books in the trilogy in print in the U.S. and Canada to date (more than 1.4 million copies of The Hunger Games since September 2008 and more than 900,000 copies of its sequel Catching Fire in less than one year since its September 2009 publication).
Mockingjay, which is embargoed, will be published in the U.S. and Canada on August 24, 2010 (August 25, 2010 in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand).
The trade paperback edition of The Hunger Games is scheduled for U.S./Canadian publication on July 3, 2010, with a first printing of 500,000 copies.
Mockingjay, which is embargoed, will be published in the U.S. and Canada on August 24, 2010 (August 25, 2010 in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand).
The trade paperback edition of The Hunger Games is scheduled for U.S./Canadian publication on July 3, 2010, with a first printing of 500,000 copies.
From World War II to Wellywood with Writers on Mondays
John Mulgan’s uncensored report on his experiences in World War II and a report on New Zealand women’s difficulties in the film industry make for a thought-provoking start to this year’s Writers on Mondays series, presented by Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML).
On 12 July, Victoria University’s first Creative Writing PhD graduate Marian Evans will tackle the barriers faced by women who want to make films in this country, and on 19 July Associate Professor of English Peter Whiteford reveals what writer/soldier John Mulgan (author of Man Alone) wasn’t allowed to say when his memoir Report on Experience was first published in 1947.
Later in the series, writer Paul Millar examines the stifling effect of Kiwi conformity on the career of homosexual writer Bill Pearson, and the state of New Zealand sports writing will be debated in a conversation between sports anthologist Harry Ricketts and journalist Paul Thomas.
Writers on Mondays will also offer previews of new work from well-loved poet and Victoria University Writer in Residence Jenny Bornholdt, and a host of exciting new literary talent emerging from the IIML. Wellingtonians will also have the chance to hear nine of New Zealand’s best poets in a reading for National Poetry Day which takes place on 30 July.
In September the annual series breaks into song, with a special Thursday evening concert launching Buddhist Rain, an album featuring jazz interpretations of poems by Bill Manhire, composed and performed by Norman Meehan, Hannah Griffin and Colin Hemmingsen.
IIML Director Bill Manhire says he is pleased that many of this year’s sessions step into public as well as private territory.
“Alongside the familiar pulse-takings of human relationships, there are the challenges of the sports field, the gender politics of the film world, and the New Zealand experience in World War II Europe.
“And in addition to well-known, established authors like Jenny Bornholdt, Bill Pearson, and John Mulgan, there are the exciting new voices we’ll be hearing a lot more of over the next few years.”
Writers on Mondays events run from 12.15-1.15pm at The Marae, Level 4, Te Papa except for:
· Short/Sharp/Script 1 & 2: Circa Theatre, Mon 20 & 27 September, 12.15-1.15 pm
· Buddhist Rain: Soundings Theatre, Thurs 23 September, 7pm
The full 2010 Writers on Mondays programme can be viewed and downloaded here: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/modernletters/about/events/writers-mondays.aspx
Admission is free, all are welcome.
Writers on Mondays is presented by the International Institute of Modern Letters with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and with support from Circa Theatre.
Monday, July 05, 2010
NZ WRITER AT MEDELLIN FESTIVAL
New Zealand poet/author James Norcliffe is attending an amazing poetry festival and will be reading with Yevtushenko on the opening night. Apparently they print 300,000 copies of the festival programme. (James won the NZ Post Junior fiction Award with his charming novel, The Loblolly Boy.)
Read about the Medellin Festival is via the Festival Website
http://www.festivaldepoesiademedellin.org/pub.php/en/Festival/XX_Festival/index.html
New Zealand poet/author James Norcliffe is attending an amazing poetry festival and will be reading with Yevtushenko on the opening night. Apparently they print 300,000 copies of the festival programme. (James won the NZ Post Junior fiction Award with his charming novel, The Loblolly Boy.)
Read about the Medellin Festival is via the Festival Website
http://www.festivaldepoesiademedellin.org/pub.php/en/Festival/XX_Festival/index.html
Shortlist for the $10,000 Text Prize announced
Booksellers NZ
The shortlist for the 2010 Text Prize was announced last week, and it includes two novels by New Zealanders.The winner will be announced on Monday next, 12 July.
The number of entries was down slightly in this the third year of the prize, but the standard was even more impressive.
This year Text has shortlisted two novels by New Zealanders and three by Australians. Three of the top five manuscripts are by unpublished authors and two by authors with works already in print.
The manuscripts' themes range from the supernatural to war, an online youth newspaper to time travel - to a slug that poos diamonds.
The shortlist is:
Haunting the Dead, Tiffany Chapple
The Diamond Factory, Julie Harris-Spearritt
Breken Crossing, Jane Higgins (NZ)
Youth Bytes, Stephen Turner
How to Talk to Girls, Philippa Werry (NZ)
The Text Prize is awarded annually to the best manuscript written for a young adult or children's readership by an Australian or New Zealand author. The winner receives $10,000 and a publishing contract.
The prize has previously unearthed gems such as Wanganui-born Richard Newsome's THE BILLIONAIRE'S CURSE (which is shortlisted for the Esther Glen Award this year and an Australian Book Industry Award, announced tonight in Sydney) and Leanne Hall's forthcoming THIS IS SHYNESS (out in August).
The 2010 winner will be announced at the Australian Booksellers Association conference in Brisbane on Monday 12 July, on the Text website later that day.
Booksellers NZ
The shortlist for the 2010 Text Prize was announced last week, and it includes two novels by New Zealanders.The winner will be announced on Monday next, 12 July.
The number of entries was down slightly in this the third year of the prize, but the standard was even more impressive.
This year Text has shortlisted two novels by New Zealanders and three by Australians. Three of the top five manuscripts are by unpublished authors and two by authors with works already in print.
The manuscripts' themes range from the supernatural to war, an online youth newspaper to time travel - to a slug that poos diamonds.
The shortlist is:
Haunting the Dead, Tiffany Chapple
The Diamond Factory, Julie Harris-Spearritt
Breken Crossing, Jane Higgins (NZ)
Youth Bytes, Stephen Turner
How to Talk to Girls, Philippa Werry (NZ)
The Text Prize is awarded annually to the best manuscript written for a young adult or children's readership by an Australian or New Zealand author. The winner receives $10,000 and a publishing contract.
The prize has previously unearthed gems such as Wanganui-born Richard Newsome's THE BILLIONAIRE'S CURSE (which is shortlisted for the Esther Glen Award this year and an Australian Book Industry Award, announced tonight in Sydney) and Leanne Hall's forthcoming THIS IS SHYNESS (out in August).
The 2010 winner will be announced at the Australian Booksellers Association conference in Brisbane on Monday 12 July, on the Text website later that day.
Saturday, July 03, 2010
A life in books: Piers Paul Read
'I don't believe feminism has made women happy, and I think younger women are now seeing things differently to the Germaine Greer generation
Nicholas Wroe , The Guardian, Saturday 3 July 2010
Piers Paul Read Photograph: Eamonn McCabe
In Julian Barnes's book meditating on death, Nothing to be Frightened Of, there is a lunch-party scene at which one of the guests, a writer identified only as P-, shocks a table of middle-aged agnostics with his concern that as a practising Catholic he was likely to be separated after death from his wife and four children, who were all unbelievers. "Yes, that was me worrying about my family going to hell," smiles Piers Paul Read, looking remarkably sanguine in the Shepherd's Bush home he shares with his wife of 43 years, Emily. "If you believe in Catholicism as I do, and a hell for unrepentant sinners, then you also have to believe that it could be your children in there. Not that it's something I have to think about every day. Catholicism is sort of regarded as 'Dad's hobby' within the family and the rest of them prefer not to talk about it too much. But even if it is more often a notional than an actual worry, it's still a nasty thought".
Read has always been an explicitly Catholic novelist and from the mid 1960s through to the mid 80s his books – repeatedly dealing with vexed moral choices, often pitting an individual against explicitly or tacitly malign social systems, often featuring generous dollops of sex – ensured he progressed smoothly from interesting new voice to respected literary figure to mainstream favourite via lavish TV adaptations of novels such as A Married Man and The Free Frenchman. And while his fiction was well reviewed and enjoyed healthy sales, his excursions into non-fiction made him both rich and internationally famous, with his account of Andes plane crash survivors resorting to cannibalism, Alive (1974), going on to become a hit movie.
But as the 1980s went on, Read seemed to become more the leading Catholic spokesman – of a very traditional type – who wrote books, rather than the leading novelist who happened to be Catholic. His social and religious conservatism fuelled "why-oh-why" columns in the Daily Mail denouncing homosexuality and feminism. He still had literary supporters, with DJ Taylor, Rachel Cusk and Anne Tyler all writing admiringly of his novels, but Read had become a more marginal artistic figure, and two years ago, after completing a new novel, the thrillerish The Death of a Pope, both his publisher and agent were concerned it was too Catholic and would not appeal to a wider readership. It was eventually published in America by the specialist Ignatius Press.
However, Read's 16th and latest novel, The Misogynist, is published this month by the mainstream house Bloomsbury. He says the leading character, Jomier, is based "a bit on myself and a bit on some people I know. We both live the wrong side of Shepherd's Bush, but the drains don't back up in my house. He's a divorced atheist and I'm a married Catholic. But we do share some views on modern life."
Read the full review/interview at The Guardian.
'I don't believe feminism has made women happy, and I think younger women are now seeing things differently to the Germaine Greer generation
Nicholas Wroe , The Guardian, Saturday 3 July 2010
Piers Paul Read Photograph: Eamonn McCabe
In Julian Barnes's book meditating on death, Nothing to be Frightened Of, there is a lunch-party scene at which one of the guests, a writer identified only as P-, shocks a table of middle-aged agnostics with his concern that as a practising Catholic he was likely to be separated after death from his wife and four children, who were all unbelievers. "Yes, that was me worrying about my family going to hell," smiles Piers Paul Read, looking remarkably sanguine in the Shepherd's Bush home he shares with his wife of 43 years, Emily. "If you believe in Catholicism as I do, and a hell for unrepentant sinners, then you also have to believe that it could be your children in there. Not that it's something I have to think about every day. Catholicism is sort of regarded as 'Dad's hobby' within the family and the rest of them prefer not to talk about it too much. But even if it is more often a notional than an actual worry, it's still a nasty thought".
Read has always been an explicitly Catholic novelist and from the mid 1960s through to the mid 80s his books – repeatedly dealing with vexed moral choices, often pitting an individual against explicitly or tacitly malign social systems, often featuring generous dollops of sex – ensured he progressed smoothly from interesting new voice to respected literary figure to mainstream favourite via lavish TV adaptations of novels such as A Married Man and The Free Frenchman. And while his fiction was well reviewed and enjoyed healthy sales, his excursions into non-fiction made him both rich and internationally famous, with his account of Andes plane crash survivors resorting to cannibalism, Alive (1974), going on to become a hit movie.
But as the 1980s went on, Read seemed to become more the leading Catholic spokesman – of a very traditional type – who wrote books, rather than the leading novelist who happened to be Catholic. His social and religious conservatism fuelled "why-oh-why" columns in the Daily Mail denouncing homosexuality and feminism. He still had literary supporters, with DJ Taylor, Rachel Cusk and Anne Tyler all writing admiringly of his novels, but Read had become a more marginal artistic figure, and two years ago, after completing a new novel, the thrillerish The Death of a Pope, both his publisher and agent were concerned it was too Catholic and would not appeal to a wider readership. It was eventually published in America by the specialist Ignatius Press.
However, Read's 16th and latest novel, The Misogynist, is published this month by the mainstream house Bloomsbury. He says the leading character, Jomier, is based "a bit on myself and a bit on some people I know. We both live the wrong side of Shepherd's Bush, but the drains don't back up in my house. He's a divorced atheist and I'm a married Catholic. But we do share some views on modern life."
Read the full review/interview at The Guardian.
‘Mambo’ Author Returns to His Muse
By Damien Cave
Published New York Times: July 2, 2010
MIAMI — Oscar Hijuelos stopped abruptly on Calle Ocho at a mural of Latino celebrities. “Wow,” he said, pointing to colorful portraits of people he knew: Celia Cruz, Cuba’s queen of salsa, and Tito Puente, the drummer extraordinaire.
Author photo by Oscar Hidalgo for The New York Times
“They used to send me Christmas cards,” Mr. Hijuelos said. He chuckled at the thought, his eyes bright as a child’s, his pale, bald forehead wet with sweat. Even without a camera, he had come to resemble what he admits he is here in Miami: a tourist.
That may sound strange for a son of Cuban immigrants who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for “The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love,” a melancholy, sex-soaked novel about two Cuban brothers trying to make music in Havana and New York before the Castro revolution. But Mr. Hijuelos has never felt entirely comfortable here in the city of “Scarface” and ElÃan González, nor is he the kind of Cuban who talks politics or demands attention for his own family’s post-Castro losses.
His art instead reflects his bebop personality — one moment humble, the next riffing passionately on love and literature. His newest book, “Beautiful Maria of My Soul,” published last month by Hyperion, shows once again that he is a careful, distant observer, whose CubanÃa, or Cubanness, comes from sitting in the audience, not performing center stage.
His vantage point has shifted this time, but only slightly. MarÃa GarcÃa y Cifuentes was the heart of “Mambo Kings,” the lost love of Nestor Castillo, the quiet, virile hero of the book who wrote a bolero in her honor. This ballad is now the name of the sequel, which follows Maria, who has now lost the accent on her name, from the moment she leaves her small village as a teenager through years as a dancer in Havana and a retiree in Miami.
Mr. Hijuelos, 58, said he returned to Maria in his eighth novel because she was never fully explored. In “Mambo Kings” she was mostly a sensual vision of unsatisfied desire. Now given her own narrative voice, she is still sexy — with escapades described in graphic detail — but she is also hard as a stiletto, giving up Nestor for a richer man (with a cold pragmatism that Mr. Hijuelos’s wife connects with his mother).
Reviewers have described the novel as a stylistic counterpoint to “Mambo Kings,” but it also explores a contrast in geography and identity: what it means to be Cuban in Miami, and what it means anywhere else.
Read the rest at NYT.
By Damien Cave
Published New York Times: July 2, 2010
MIAMI — Oscar Hijuelos stopped abruptly on Calle Ocho at a mural of Latino celebrities. “Wow,” he said, pointing to colorful portraits of people he knew: Celia Cruz, Cuba’s queen of salsa, and Tito Puente, the drummer extraordinaire.
Author photo by Oscar Hidalgo for The New York Times“They used to send me Christmas cards,” Mr. Hijuelos said. He chuckled at the thought, his eyes bright as a child’s, his pale, bald forehead wet with sweat. Even without a camera, he had come to resemble what he admits he is here in Miami: a tourist.
That may sound strange for a son of Cuban immigrants who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for “The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love,” a melancholy, sex-soaked novel about two Cuban brothers trying to make music in Havana and New York before the Castro revolution. But Mr. Hijuelos has never felt entirely comfortable here in the city of “Scarface” and ElÃan González, nor is he the kind of Cuban who talks politics or demands attention for his own family’s post-Castro losses.
His vantage point has shifted this time, but only slightly. MarÃa GarcÃa y Cifuentes was the heart of “Mambo Kings,” the lost love of Nestor Castillo, the quiet, virile hero of the book who wrote a bolero in her honor. This ballad is now the name of the sequel, which follows Maria, who has now lost the accent on her name, from the moment she leaves her small village as a teenager through years as a dancer in Havana and a retiree in Miami.
Mr. Hijuelos, 58, said he returned to Maria in his eighth novel because she was never fully explored. In “Mambo Kings” she was mostly a sensual vision of unsatisfied desire. Now given her own narrative voice, she is still sexy — with escapades described in graphic detail — but she is also hard as a stiletto, giving up Nestor for a richer man (with a cold pragmatism that Mr. Hijuelos’s wife connects with his mother).
Reviewers have described the novel as a stylistic counterpoint to “Mambo Kings,” but it also explores a contrast in geography and identity: what it means to be Cuban in Miami, and what it means anywhere else.
Read the rest at NYT.
Prizewinning Kiwi author Lloyd Jones in Papua New Guinea to promote reading and oral history in both pidgin and English
David Cohen,Guardian Weekly, Tuesday 29 June 2010
Author Lloyd Jones Photograph: Michael Danner for the Observer
A New Zealand author who went from relative literary obscurity to being a frontrunner for the Man Booker Prize in 2007 has established a novel development project.
Lloyd Jones, whose Mister Pip sold 300,000 copies in Britain after it reached the Booker shortlist, is hoping to arouse similar enthusiasm for his venture in support of the real-life inhabitants of the island where his novel was set.
His Bougainville Library Trust has already made links with local people to help them plan, build, stock and fundraise for a community library – Jones calls it a "temple for story" – in Arawa, the largest settlement on Bougainville, an autonomous island that is within the political fold of Papua New Guinea.
Also planned is a cultural centre to house field notes from visiting scholars and historical materials from institutions around the region.
A site for the solar-powered library, which will include a stage for performance, a room for carvings and space for housing old and new recordings of stories, songs and oral histories, has been provided and architectural plans are being made.
The project, which is being administered through a dedicated website, is supported by volunteer agencies in Bougainville and New Zealand. Besides the £150,000 ($224,740) they want to raise to help build and stock the library – and replenish its books, which will deteriorate faster than usual because of the tropical air – a further £25,000 is to be earmarked for collecting local stories.
The full story here.
See account of NZ launch story on 31 March on blog here.
Christchurch-based author Helen Lowe now blogging on the Supernatural Underground in the US on "Why I Love Fantasy."
The Supernatural Underground is a blog for HarperCollins USA spec-fic authors. She'll be blogging there once a month from now on, on the 1st of every month, but yesterday was her debut:
http://www.supernaturalunderground.blogspot.com/
And there are giveaways!
The Supernatural Underground is a blog for HarperCollins USA spec-fic authors. She'll be blogging there once a month from now on, on the 1st of every month, but yesterday was her debut:
http://www.supernaturalunderground.blogspot.com/
And there are giveaways!
01.07.10 | Katie Allen in The Bookseller
Debut novels by Elly Griffiths and Tom Rob Smith have knocked off heavyweights including Martina Cole and Val McDermid from the shortlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Griffiths and Smith will have to battle against seasoned writers such as Peter James, Ian Rankin and Mark Billingham for the prize; the shortlist was the result of a public vote, with the winner decided by the public plus a judging panel.
Reginald Hill, whose novels were made into the 'Dalziel and Pascoe' TV series, has been awarded the inaugural Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award. Hill will receive his accolade alongside the winner of the £3,000 prize on 22nd July at the annual crime-writing festival, with radio presenter Mark Lawson hosting.
The shortlist in full:
The Surrogate by Tania Carver (Little, Brown)
A Simple Act of Violence by R J Ellory (Orion)
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
Dead Tomorrow by Peter James (Pan Books)
Gallows Lane by Brian McGilloway (Pan Macmillan)
Doors Open by Ian Rankin (Orion)
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (Simon & Schuster)
Invite you to the launch of Daisy Chains – a novel by Kevin Ireland
At Takapuna Library
The Strand, Takapuna
Monday, 12 July 2010
6.00 pm --- Light refreshments served
Launch from 6.30 pm
RSVP to Helen Woodhouse, phone 486 8469 or email helenw@shorelibraries.govt.nz
1 Jul 2010 - Booksellers NZ
International bestselling author and literacy campaigner, James Patterson is to judge an exclusive literacy competition for New Zealand children, aimed at getting them to read more.
The James Patterson Literacy Promotion competition is being held by book publisher Random House New Zealand (RHNZ) in conjunction with the New Zealand book trade, who will promote the competition in-store with posters, display stands and stickered information on stock of all new books in the following James Patterson’s children’s series: Maximum Ride, Daniel X and Witch or Wizard.
The James Patterson Literacy Promotion competition commences in July 2010 and the winner will be announced in October 2010. Competition entry is through the RHNZ website www.randomhouse.co.nz.
Full story at Booksellers NZ
Footnote:
An interesting piece worth reading about James Patterson in TIME back in 2006.
And in the latest issue, July 5, 2010 - 10 questions put to him by readers is worth a read, especially by other authors who envy his output and sales ! Quite illuminating.
Author photo above by Rankin.
Back When Men Shared Secrets
By Michiko Kakutani
Published New York Times: July 1, 2010
WALKS WITH MEN
By Ann Beattie
102 pages. Scribner. $17.
Author pic by Fred Field for The New York Times
No one’s been better than Ann Beattie at dropping a couple of brand names, book and movie titles or references to food and fashion to conjure a particular time and place and circumstance. The smart young denizens of the ’70s and ’80s who populate her best-known fiction tend to be clever, artsy types who, if they haven’t attended a notable university or law school, are taking night-school courses in poetry. They smoke joints, drink wine spritzers, eat ramen noodles, underline Russian novels and quote Wallace Stevens. They wear jackets from L. L. Bean, listen to Lou Reed, make mixtapes and know things like how to identify a Limoges plate without looking at the back.
In her slim new novella, “Walks With Men,” Ms. Beattie conjures New York in the 1980s, though it soon becomes clear that her narrator is looking back at that archaeological era through a rear-view mirror. It’s a time when hipsters looked for jazz albums in the Village, browsed paintings at the Mary Boone gallery and “contextualized” their angst “by quoting Proust, Rilke, Mallarmé and Donald Barthelme.” The Trump International Hotel on Columbus Circle was known then as the Gulf & Western Building, and Chelsea was still less than fashionable. When you were put on hold on the phone, you were likely to hear a Muzak version of “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.”
Full report at NYT.
Footnote:
I bought this a couple of days ago at 192 Books and will write about it in due course.
By Michiko Kakutani
Published New York Times: July 1, 2010
WALKS WITH MEN
By Ann Beattie
102 pages. Scribner. $17.
No one’s been better than Ann Beattie at dropping a couple of brand names, book and movie titles or references to food and fashion to conjure a particular time and place and circumstance. The smart young denizens of the ’70s and ’80s who populate her best-known fiction tend to be clever, artsy types who, if they haven’t attended a notable university or law school, are taking night-school courses in poetry. They smoke joints, drink wine spritzers, eat ramen noodles, underline Russian novels and quote Wallace Stevens. They wear jackets from L. L. Bean, listen to Lou Reed, make mixtapes and know things like how to identify a Limoges plate without looking at the back.
In her slim new novella, “Walks With Men,” Ms. Beattie conjures New York in the 1980s, though it soon becomes clear that her narrator is looking back at that archaeological era through a rear-view mirror. It’s a time when hipsters looked for jazz albums in the Village, browsed paintings at the Mary Boone gallery and “contextualized” their angst “by quoting Proust, Rilke, Mallarmé and Donald Barthelme.” The Trump International Hotel on Columbus Circle was known then as the Gulf & Western Building, and Chelsea was still less than fashionable. When you were put on hold on the phone, you were likely to hear a Muzak version of “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.”
Full report at NYT.
Footnote:
I bought this a couple of days ago at 192 Books and will write about it in due course.
Beryl Bainbridge dies, aged 75The grande dame of British literature passed away in the early hours of this morning, her literary agent has confirmed
Alison Flood, guardian.co.uk, Friday 2 July 2010
Photo above:Writer Beryl Bainbridge at home Grande dame of British literature ... Beryl Bainbridge. Photograph: David Levenson/Getty Images
Maverick, unique and horribly funny, according to her fellow authors: the world of British literature felt an emptier place today following the death of Beryl Bainbridge, aged 75.
She was admitted to hospital last week following a recurrence of cancer, and died suddenly in the early hours of this morning.
One of the grandes dames of the UK's literary scene, Bainbridge was a prolific writer whose short, dark comic novels – which invariably included a streak of tragedy - landed her five shortlistings for the Man Booker prize (and the label of perennial Booker bridesmaid), made her a two-time winner of the Whitbread award and saw her awarded a DBE in 2000.
"She was a wonderful writer in the tradition of British petit guignol that included Evelyn Waugh and Muriel Spark: coolly stylish, meticulous, beady-eyed and horribly funny. I would have wished her more injury time, but her record stands," said the Man Booker prize-winning author John Banville. "I met [her] on a couple of occasions and was much taken with her manner of stark lugubriousness tempered with high and subversive irony - just like her books."
"Beryl had an absolutely original voice: she was a serious comedian, all of whose novels ended tragically," said the biographer Michael Holroyd. "She presented herself sometimes as a clown, an entertainer, but behind that mask was a committed novelist. She was unique."
"What was so splendid about her was that she was completely maverick," agreed the novelist Penelope Lively, winner of the Booker and Carnegie awards. "When she first began you were very aware of her fresh, startling voice. I remember coming across her first novels and thinking 'goodness, I haven't read anything like this before'."
"Very sad," tweeted Margaret Atwood of her "old pal" Bainbridge this afternoon. "Wondrous original, great sport, loved her books. Hope she has champa According to Queeneygne in heaven & a smoke..."
Alison Flood's full tribute at The Guardian.
02.07.10 | Graeme Neill in The Bookseller
John Lennon’s secret archive, including lyrics, clothes, guitars and letters from the former Beatle, will be unveiled this autumn in a book Carlton is publishing with Lennon’s son Julian.
Beatles Memorabilia: The Julian Lennon Collection will be published in September in hardback, priced £25. It is written by Brian Southall, who worked with The Beatles during his time at their record company EMI.
Editor Roland Hall said the publisher has secured a serial deal with a national newspaper so could not reveal specifics about the items. But he added: "Suffice to say there are items in the collection that nobody has ever seen before. Some were handed down by John himself, some came from Julian’s mother Cynthia, some were purchased by Julian at auction and some were gifts from others—such as May Pang and Paul McCartney . . . There has never been a collection like this in print before."
The publisher will also reissue Steve Turner’s A Hard Day’s Write, a guide to the stories behind every Beatles’ song (hardback, £20), and Paul du Noyer’s Working Class Hero (hardback, £16.99), a guide to Lennon’s solo material, in September. Lennon would have been 70 in October.
William S. Merwin named 17th US poet laureate
A writer who stopped using punctuation in the 1960s and spent much of the last 30 years secluded in Hawaii has been named as the next poet laureate of the United States.
Published: The Telegraph, 01 Jul 2010
William S. Merwin has been named as the 17th US poet laureate Photo: AP
William S. Merwin will become the 17th US poet laureate in the autumn, succeeding Kay Ryan, who has held the post since 2008.
The 82-year-old Merwin is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, honoured most recently in 2009 for "The Shadow of Sirius".
The author of more than 30 books, Merwin's poems are heavily influenced by his interest in Buddhism. Also an ardent environmentalist, Merwin has dedicated himself to restoring the island's rainforests - work he can continue while serving as America's poet-in-chief because he will still be based at his secluded Hawaiian pineapple plantation.
"I am very happy to do it at a time when there is someone that I respect so much in the White House," Merwin said. "One always hopes that one is going to draw more attention to poetry and get more people to pay attention to it," he said, adding: "I am not primarily a disseminator. I just like to write poems."
The position, created in 1985, lasts for a year or two and is intended to raise national appreciation of poetry. It comes with a $35,000 (£23,000) stipend and a $5,000 travel allowance.
A writer who stopped using punctuation in the 1960s and spent much of the last 30 years secluded in Hawaii has been named as the next poet laureate of the United States.
Published: The Telegraph, 01 Jul 2010
William S. Merwin will become the 17th US poet laureate in the autumn, succeeding Kay Ryan, who has held the post since 2008.
The 82-year-old Merwin is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, honoured most recently in 2009 for "The Shadow of Sirius".
"I am very happy to do it at a time when there is someone that I respect so much in the White House," Merwin said. "One always hopes that one is going to draw more attention to poetry and get more people to pay attention to it," he said, adding: "I am not primarily a disseminator. I just like to write poems."
The position, created in 1985, lasts for a year or two and is intended to raise national appreciation of poetry. It comes with a $35,000 (£23,000) stipend and a $5,000 travel allowance.
July 2, 2010 - Retail Week
Bookseller Waterstone’s is remodelling 20 of its regional flagships as part of its renewal programme to turn around the business, which has revealed a slump in full-year profits.
The new format includes a rebranded fascia, improved range, revamped till areas, an enhanced children’s section and more space for shoppers to “sit and relax”. Some of the shops will also feature Paperchase concessions.
Three stores have so far been reformatted and the remainder will be by the end of the summer. The 20 stores account for 21% of the bookseller’s sales.
The changes comes as parent HMV revealed a slump in operating profit at Waterstone’s to £2.8m from £7.2m in the year to April 24.
Full story here.
Literary "Ink": Behind Penguin's Tattoo Covered Modern Classics
David Foster Wallace had a well-known tattoo of Mary Karr on his arm, but crossed that out when he got married. I have no idea if Helen Fielding, J.M. Coetzee, Martin Amis, Keri Hulme, or Ian Fleming have or had tattoos. Still, each of them have been given the tattoo treatment by Penguin, which has re-issued editions of their seminal works with covers designed by tattoo artists. We talk to Penguin "Ink" series editor Tom Roberge about the motivation behind this hip new series.
Footnote:
Note on e of the above tcovers is for Keri Hulme's Booker prize-winning The Bone People. It is too small to be able to see clearly but looks good and certainly a far cry from any earlier cover solution.
Read the article ..
What Inspires You to Buy Replacement Classics for Your Library?
Publishers like Penguin, with deep backlists, must depend to some extent on avid book buyers buying or repurchasing multiple copies of classics over their lifetime. So what inspires you to buy multiple, redundant copies of classics you already own? New covers? Introductions?
Let us know what you think!
David Foster Wallace had a well-known tattoo of Mary Karr on his arm, but crossed that out when he got married. I have no idea if Helen Fielding, J.M. Coetzee, Martin Amis, Keri Hulme, or Ian Fleming have or had tattoos. Still, each of them have been given the tattoo treatment by Penguin, which has re-issued editions of their seminal works with covers designed by tattoo artists. We talk to Penguin "Ink" series editor Tom Roberge about the motivation behind this hip new series.
Footnote:
Note on e of the above tcovers is for Keri Hulme's Booker prize-winning The Bone People. It is too small to be able to see clearly but looks good and certainly a far cry from any earlier cover solution.
Read the article ..
What Inspires You to Buy Replacement Classics for Your Library?
Publishers like Penguin, with deep backlists, must depend to some extent on avid book buyers buying or repurchasing multiple copies of classics over their lifetime. So what inspires you to buy multiple, redundant copies of classics you already own? New covers? Introductions?
Let us know what you think!
Friday, July 02, 2010
True Stories Told Live event back by popular demand this Sunday July 4th
Ever wondered how life is somehow stranger than fiction?
As Neil Gaiman once said fiction has to be convincing and life doesnt. Life owes no obligation to be good art.
True Stories, Told Live events: seven people, seven stories, straight up, unscripted, live and unrehearsed.
An ex-nun, a celebrant, an acclaimed short story writer, a biographer, a theatre director, a scholar, physiotherapist will take to the stage.
In this new and highly entertaining format, the Book Council gets reacquainted with the oral tradition -- storytelling in a different form.
Its about getting up in a room in front of an audience and telling a story. It could be anything but something with a beginning, a middle and an end and it sort of needs to be true
Its about attempting to bring back the oral tradition, about not losing focus amongst all that technology, its about our own imaginations and that connective inspiration.
So what do you think? Want to hear a story?
TAPAC Motions Road (opposite the Zoo)
July 4th @ 4pm
$10.00 on the door
or further information, please contact:
Susanna Andrew
New Zealand Book Council
susanna@bookcouncil.org.nz
021 151 8826
Ever wondered how life is somehow stranger than fiction?
As Neil Gaiman once said fiction has to be convincing and life doesnt. Life owes no obligation to be good art.
True Stories, Told Live events: seven people, seven stories, straight up, unscripted, live and unrehearsed.
An ex-nun, a celebrant, an acclaimed short story writer, a biographer, a theatre director, a scholar, physiotherapist will take to the stage.
In this new and highly entertaining format, the Book Council gets reacquainted with the oral tradition -- storytelling in a different form.
Its about getting up in a room in front of an audience and telling a story. It could be anything but something with a beginning, a middle and an end and it sort of needs to be true
Its about attempting to bring back the oral tradition, about not losing focus amongst all that technology, its about our own imaginations and that connective inspiration.
So what do you think? Want to hear a story?
TAPAC Motions Road (opposite the Zoo)
July 4th @ 4pm
$10.00 on the door
or further information, please contact:
Susanna Andrew
New Zealand Book Council
susanna@bookcouncil.org.nz
021 151 8826
Saturday Morning with Kim Hill: 3 July 2010
Radio New Zealand National
8:15 Daniel Ellsberg: most dangerous man
9:05 Arturo Arias: Guatemala
9.35 Julie Woods: blind dining
10:05 Father Michael Mahoney: mountainous priest
11:05 Bobby Crush: Liberace
11:45 Kate de Goldi: Virginia Hamilton
Producer: Sean McKenna
Wellington engineer: Marc Chesterman
Auckland engineer: Ian Gordon
Dunedin engineer: Rod Morgan
More information follows on Saturday's guests, repeats of previous interviews, next week's programme, and this email list. As this is live radio, guests and times may change on the day.
***********
Saturday Morning guest information and links:
8:15 Daniel Ellsberg: most dangerous man
Dr Daniel Ellsberg is a former marine and military analyst who precipitated a national political controversy in the United States in 1971 when he released a top-secret Pentagon study of US government decision-making about the Vietnam War. He is the subject and narrator of a new documentary, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, screening at this year’s New Zealand International Film Festivals (from 8 July in Auckland).
www.ellsberg.net/
www.mostdangerousman.org/
http://nzff.co.nz/
9:05 Arturo Arias: Guatemala
Professor Arturo Arias is a novelist and academic from Guatemala. His fiction writing is heavily influenced by Maya culture and in 2008, he was awarded the Guatemalan National Prize in Literature. A specialist in indigenous studies, he is currently Professor of Latin American Literature at the University of Texas at Austin.
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/spanish/faculty/aa3398
9.35 Julie Woods: blind dining
Julie Woods, also known as "that blind woman", is a motivational coach and speaker. With New Zealand chef and author Julie Biuso and the team at Otago Polytechnic TECHnique Restaurant, she will be presenting the Dining in the Dark experience on 9 July at the New Zealand International Science Festival in Dunedin (6-11 July). The three course dinner for blindfolded participants will include a talk from ophthalmologist Dr Andrew Thompson.
www.thatblindwoman.co.nz/
http://www.scifest.org.nz/events/dining-in-the-dark-experience
10:05 Father Michael Mahoney: mountainous priest
Father Michael Mahoney is a Marist Father who was based in Brazil for the last 30 years. He was also a member of the first New Zealand expedition to Mount Everest in 1977. In Brazil, he was a parish priest in the semi-desert region of Bahia, where he was involved in a multitude of local community projects. Father Mahoney is currently writing a history of Arthur’s Pass and is parish priest of South Westland from Ross to Haast.
http://www.sm.org.nz/marist-international/mission-districts/brazil/
11:05 Bobby Crush: Liberace
Bobby Crush has been famous in the UK for over 30 years, primarily as a pianist, but also as a songwriter, broadcaster, actor and TV presenter. He is visiting over 30 New Zealand towns and cities with his critically acclaimed musical comedy, Liberace Live From Heaven, from 9 July through 19 August.
www.bobbycrush.com/
11:45 Kate de Goldi: Virginia Hamilton
Kate De Goldi will discuss the work of black American children's novelist Virginia Hamilton, who came to prominence in the 1970s. Her books include her first novel Zeely, set in North Carolina in early 60s (Aladdin, 2006, ISBN: 978-1416914136), MC Higgins the Great (Aladdin, 2006, ISBN: 978-1416914075), The House of Dies Drear (Aladdin, 2006, ISBN: 978-1416914051) and The Mystery of Drear House (Scholastic Paperbacks, 1997, ISBN: 978-0590956277), companion novels, set in the 1960s, about a house in Ohio owned during the Civil War by an abolitionist who helped operate the Underground Railway.
http://www.virginiahamilton.com/
***********
Saturday Morning repeats:
On Saturday 3 July 2010 during Great Encounters between 6:06pm and 7:00pm on Radio New Zealand National, you can hear an edited repeat of Kim Hill’s interview from Saturday 26 June with Australian film director Gillian Armstrong.
Preview: Saturday 10 July 2010
Kim Hill’s guests will include documentary filmmaker Briar March, award-winning designer Philip Fierlinger and rapping scientist Tom McFadden.
Radio New Zealand National
8:15 Daniel Ellsberg: most dangerous man
9:05 Arturo Arias: Guatemala
9.35 Julie Woods: blind dining
10:05 Father Michael Mahoney: mountainous priest
11:05 Bobby Crush: Liberace
11:45 Kate de Goldi: Virginia Hamilton
Producer: Sean McKenna
Wellington engineer: Marc Chesterman
Auckland engineer: Ian Gordon
Dunedin engineer: Rod Morgan
More information follows on Saturday's guests, repeats of previous interviews, next week's programme, and this email list. As this is live radio, guests and times may change on the day.
***********
Saturday Morning guest information and links:
8:15 Daniel Ellsberg: most dangerous man
Dr Daniel Ellsberg is a former marine and military analyst who precipitated a national political controversy in the United States in 1971 when he released a top-secret Pentagon study of US government decision-making about the Vietnam War. He is the subject and narrator of a new documentary, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, screening at this year’s New Zealand International Film Festivals (from 8 July in Auckland).
www.ellsberg.net/
www.mostdangerousman.org/
http://nzff.co.nz/
9:05 Arturo Arias: Guatemala
Professor Arturo Arias is a novelist and academic from Guatemala. His fiction writing is heavily influenced by Maya culture and in 2008, he was awarded the Guatemalan National Prize in Literature. A specialist in indigenous studies, he is currently Professor of Latin American Literature at the University of Texas at Austin.
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/spanish/faculty/aa3398
9.35 Julie Woods: blind dining
Julie Woods, also known as "that blind woman", is a motivational coach and speaker. With New Zealand chef and author Julie Biuso and the team at Otago Polytechnic TECHnique Restaurant, she will be presenting the Dining in the Dark experience on 9 July at the New Zealand International Science Festival in Dunedin (6-11 July). The three course dinner for blindfolded participants will include a talk from ophthalmologist Dr Andrew Thompson.
www.thatblindwoman.co.nz/
http://www.scifest.org.nz/events/dining-in-the-dark-experience
10:05 Father Michael Mahoney: mountainous priest
Father Michael Mahoney is a Marist Father who was based in Brazil for the last 30 years. He was also a member of the first New Zealand expedition to Mount Everest in 1977. In Brazil, he was a parish priest in the semi-desert region of Bahia, where he was involved in a multitude of local community projects. Father Mahoney is currently writing a history of Arthur’s Pass and is parish priest of South Westland from Ross to Haast.
http://www.sm.org.nz/marist-international/mission-districts/brazil/
11:05 Bobby Crush: Liberace
Bobby Crush has been famous in the UK for over 30 years, primarily as a pianist, but also as a songwriter, broadcaster, actor and TV presenter. He is visiting over 30 New Zealand towns and cities with his critically acclaimed musical comedy, Liberace Live From Heaven, from 9 July through 19 August.
www.bobbycrush.com/
11:45 Kate de Goldi: Virginia Hamilton
Kate De Goldi will discuss the work of black American children's novelist Virginia Hamilton, who came to prominence in the 1970s. Her books include her first novel Zeely, set in North Carolina in early 60s (Aladdin, 2006, ISBN: 978-1416914136), MC Higgins the Great (Aladdin, 2006, ISBN: 978-1416914075), The House of Dies Drear (Aladdin, 2006, ISBN: 978-1416914051) and The Mystery of Drear House (Scholastic Paperbacks, 1997, ISBN: 978-0590956277), companion novels, set in the 1960s, about a house in Ohio owned during the Civil War by an abolitionist who helped operate the Underground Railway.
http://www.virginiahamilton.com/
***********
Saturday Morning repeats:
On Saturday 3 July 2010 during Great Encounters between 6:06pm and 7:00pm on Radio New Zealand National, you can hear an edited repeat of Kim Hill’s interview from Saturday 26 June with Australian film director Gillian Armstrong.
Preview: Saturday 10 July 2010
Kim Hill’s guests will include documentary filmmaker Briar March, award-winning designer Philip Fierlinger and rapping scientist Tom McFadden.
iBookstore for Canada, SuperKindle Flies Higher, and More
PublishersLunch
Canada's iBookstore went live with paid books yesterday according to users (or today according to other official announcements). This morning Hachette Book Group, Harper Canada and Simon & Schuster Canada each announced that they are among publishers now selling through the store.
Today Amazon announced they are taking pre-orders for a new version of the SuperKindle, shipping as of July 7. The new model is priced at $379 (compared to $479 for the original model), and is said to have "an all new, high contrast electronic ink display with 50 percent better contrast."
Release
Yesterday Amazon posted on their Kindle forum that they will be addling Kindle widgets that let people provide browser-based previews of Kindle books on the web sites.
Post
Clarkson Potter has released the first of a line of full-color illustrated digital cookbooks, Martha Stewart's Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast, 250 Easy, Delicious Recipes for Any Time of Day. They say "the beautiful photographs are optimized for full-color e-readers, however images will also appear on black-and-white devices." It has a digital list price of $24.99.
Earlier this week Kobo launched a new version of their iPhone app, "built specifically" for the newest device and new operating system.
FABIO CAPELLO has turned down a £1million offer to write a book about England's World Cup campaign.
The England coach gave an emphatic 'No' when approached by top American sports agent Charlie Stillitano to give his inside view of the 2010 finals in South Africa.
Stillitano is a hugely powerful and persuasive figure with world-renowned Creative Artists Agency.
CAA look after top Hollywood stars like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Sandra Bullock plus sports stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho.
Yet not even even their glamorous connections and Stillitano's famed negotiating skills could persuade Capello to go ahead with it.
A close friend of Capello said: "CAA were very keen to do this book about the World Cup and really pushed Fabio to do it.
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/worldcup2010/3035343/Fabio-Capello-has-turned-down-a-1million-book-deal.html#ixzz0sTi8NjoK
Judges announced for John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2010
Claire Allfree, literary editor of Metro, has been named as the chair of an illustrious panel of judges for this year’s John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.
Claire will head up a panel which includes critic and broadcaster Bidisha and poet Maura Dooley to judge the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry or drama) by a UK or Commonwealth writer aged 35 years or under.
The shortlist will be announced on Friday 15 October. The winner will receive a cheque for £5,000, with the other shortlisted authors receiving £500 each. The winner will be announced at a ceremony at Century Club in London on Tuesday 23 November.
Claire Allfree commented:
‘I am delighted to be chairing the judging panel for this year's John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. I've always thought the prize invaluable for the way it champions young writers from across a variety of disciplines, and for the way it reaches out across the world to exciting new writers from all sorts of different backgrounds and cultures with new stories to tell. The prize has a proven track record for picking out authors who have gone on to enjoy stellar careers and I'm confident that this year will be no different.’
About the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
The prize was founded in 1942 in honour of the writer John Llewellyn Rhys, who was killed in action in the Second World War. His young wife – also a writer – initiated the award to honour and celebrate his life. Past winners include Margaret Drabble in 1966, William Boyd in 1982, Jeanette Winterson in 1987, Matthew Kneale in 1992, David Mitchell in 1999, and, most recently, Evie Wyld in 2009 with her book After the Fire, a Still Small Voice. Evie is currently Booktrust’s online writer in residence.
Booktrust is an independent charity dedicated to encouraging people of all ages and cultures to engage with books. The written word underpins all our activity and enables us to fulfil our vision of inspiring a lifelong love of books for all. www.booktrust.org.uk
About the Judges
Claire Allfree (Chair) is assistant arts editor and literary editor at Metro, where she has worked since the paper was launched. A voracious reader, she studied English at Cambridge, and is utterly delighted to be chairing this year's John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. She lives in London.
Bidisha is a critic, writer and broadcaster. A former BBC Radio 3 Night Waves presenter, she now presents The Strand for the BBC World Service, as well as presenting various other shows for BBC Radio 4 and the World Service. She writes for The Guardian, The Financial Times, The New Statesman, The Observer and Mslexia. Her most recent book is the travel memoir Venetian Masters. When not reading for the John Lewellyn Rhys Prize this summer she will be guest presenting Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.
Maura Dooley has published several collections of poetry, most recently Life Under Water and edited anthologies of verse and essays, amongst them The Honey Gatherers: Love Poems and How Novelists Work. She has worked with new writers all her working life for – amongst others – the Arvon Foundation, Performing Arts Labs, Southbank Centre, Jim Henson Film and currently for Goldsmiths College, University of London. She has twice been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Claire Allfree, literary editor of Metro, has been named as the chair of an illustrious panel of judges for this year’s John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.
Claire will head up a panel which includes critic and broadcaster Bidisha and poet Maura Dooley to judge the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry or drama) by a UK or Commonwealth writer aged 35 years or under.
The shortlist will be announced on Friday 15 October. The winner will receive a cheque for £5,000, with the other shortlisted authors receiving £500 each. The winner will be announced at a ceremony at Century Club in London on Tuesday 23 November.
Claire Allfree commented:
‘I am delighted to be chairing the judging panel for this year's John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. I've always thought the prize invaluable for the way it champions young writers from across a variety of disciplines, and for the way it reaches out across the world to exciting new writers from all sorts of different backgrounds and cultures with new stories to tell. The prize has a proven track record for picking out authors who have gone on to enjoy stellar careers and I'm confident that this year will be no different.’
About the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
The prize was founded in 1942 in honour of the writer John Llewellyn Rhys, who was killed in action in the Second World War. His young wife – also a writer – initiated the award to honour and celebrate his life. Past winners include Margaret Drabble in 1966, William Boyd in 1982, Jeanette Winterson in 1987, Matthew Kneale in 1992, David Mitchell in 1999, and, most recently, Evie Wyld in 2009 with her book After the Fire, a Still Small Voice. Evie is currently Booktrust’s online writer in residence.
Booktrust is an independent charity dedicated to encouraging people of all ages and cultures to engage with books. The written word underpins all our activity and enables us to fulfil our vision of inspiring a lifelong love of books for all. www.booktrust.org.uk
About the Judges
Claire Allfree (Chair) is assistant arts editor and literary editor at Metro, where she has worked since the paper was launched. A voracious reader, she studied English at Cambridge, and is utterly delighted to be chairing this year's John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. She lives in London.
Bidisha is a critic, writer and broadcaster. A former BBC Radio 3 Night Waves presenter, she now presents The Strand for the BBC World Service, as well as presenting various other shows for BBC Radio 4 and the World Service. She writes for The Guardian, The Financial Times, The New Statesman, The Observer and Mslexia. Her most recent book is the travel memoir Venetian Masters. When not reading for the John Lewellyn Rhys Prize this summer she will be guest presenting Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.
Maura Dooley has published several collections of poetry, most recently Life Under Water and edited anthologies of verse and essays, amongst them The Honey Gatherers: Love Poems and How Novelists Work. She has worked with new writers all her working life for – amongst others – the Arvon Foundation, Performing Arts Labs, Southbank Centre, Jim Henson Film and currently for Goldsmiths College, University of London. She has twice been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea (Granta) by Barbara Demick wins the 2010 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize, today Thursday 1 July. In the book Demick weaves together the stories of adversity, resilience and survival of six ordinary people living in Chongin, North Korea.
Through extensive interviews with defectors, Los Angeles Times journalist Barbara Demick shows in a compelling and unforgettable way that this hermetic country is Orwell’s 1984 made reality.
Demick follows the stories of six North Korean citizens; two lovers who dated secretly for a decade and feared to criticise the regime to each other; a young homeless boy; an idealistic woman doctor; a factory worker who loves Kim Il Sung more than her own family; and her rebellious daughter. In the totalitarian regime where they lived, all radio and television broadcasts are government sponsored; Gone with the Wind is a dangerous, banned book and during political rallies, spies study your expression to check your sincerity. It is the only country in the world not connected to the internet.
The title of the book comes from a song North Korean children are taught, “We have nothing to envy in the world”, and until recently people seem to have believed this as they had so little access to information about life outside their own borders.
Evan Davis, chair of the judges and presenter of Radio 4 Today, announced the winner of the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction at the Royal Institute for British Architects (RIBA), London. He comments:
“It is the personal detail in Nothing to Envy that makes it both gripping and moving. Nowhere will you find a better account of real life in North Korea, a society that is all too easily comically typecast by massive parades of co-ordinated flag-wavers. I think we knew this book had something when we found ourselves reading it out loud to spouses and partners. And it is a real testament to Demick’s writing, that a book on such a grim topic can be so hard to put down.”
Barbara Demick is a foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, where she has reported from the Middle East and South Korea. She is currently living in Beijing. Her coverage of the war in Sarajevo won the George Polk Award and the Robert F Kennedy Award, and she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting.
“A most perceptive and eye-opening account of everyday life in North Korea” - Jung Chang
“I loved it - I couldn't pull myself away. This is the first book I've read which tells me about the inner lives of individual North Koreans” - Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor, Channel 4 News
Davis was joined on the judging panel by writer and arts editor of the Financial Times, Jan Dalley; executive editor of The Times, Daniel Finkelstein; editor of New Scientist, Roger Highfield; and author and best-selling historian Stella Tillyard.
Each of the five shortlisted authors receives £1,000.
Formerly The BBC FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize, the change in name reflects the BBC’s commitment to broadcasting coverage of the prize on a special edition of BBC TWO’s The Culture Show featuring coverage of the contenders, which goes out tonight at 11.20pm.
The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2010 Shortlist
· Alex’s Adventures in Numberland by Alex Bellos (Bloomsbury)
· Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick (Granta)
· Blood Knots by Luke Jennings (Atlantic Books)
· Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin (Penguin, Allen Lane)
· A Gambling Man by Jenny Uglow (Faber and Faber)
· Catching Fire: How Cooking made us Human by Richard Wrangham (Profile Books)
Former Winners
1999 Stalingrad by Antony Beevor (Penguin)
2000 Berlioz: Servitude and Greatness by David Cairns (The Penguin Press)
2001 The Third Reich: A New History by Michael Burleigh (Macmillan)
2002 Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 by Margaret Macmillan (John Murray)
2003 Pushkin: A biography by T.J. Binyon (HarperCollins)
2004 Stasiland by Anna Funder (Granta)
2005 Like a Fiery Elephant by Jonathan Coe (Picador)
2006 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro (Faber & Faber)
2007 Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Bloomsbury)
2008 The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury)
2009 Leviathan or The Whale by Philip Hoare (Fourth Estate)
01.07.10 | Graeme Neill in The Bookseller
Simon & Schuster has bought the memoir of actor Bill Tarmey, best known for his role as Jack Duckworth in “Coronation Street”, for a “healthy six figure sum”.
The publisher will release Being Jack—My Life on the Street and Other Adventures in hardback in October.
Kerri Sharp, senior commissioning editor for non-fiction, bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Jonathan Groves at the Billy Marsh Agency.
She said: “The book is a must for fans of both ‘Coronation Street’ and of classic British TV.”
Picture courtesy of Granada TV
Thursday, July 01, 2010
to be published in a Maori version - MAHIARA
The boisterous and bestselling children’s book full of noisy fun for machine-mad kids is making another outing!
Roadworks written by Sally Sutton and illustrated by Brian Lovelock is to be published in a Maori version in October 2010 by Walker Books.
It is a retelling in the Maori language by award-winning translator Katerina Mataira.
Roadworks is made with machine-mad pre-school boys in mind, though girls also love the exciting noise-words, rhythms and rhymes. Roadworks differs from other machine books in that it shows an actual project being completed from start to finish, in this case, the building of a road.
‘Beyond compare Roadworks is the definitive must-have machine and trucks picture book – it eclipses all the others! It was both my favourite Chistmas present last year, and my most beloved book in my library to date.’
Liam Sidwell, Aged 2, Sydney – (translated by his mother Samantha Sidwell)
MAHIARA/Roadworks by Sally Sutton & Brian Lovelock, RRP AUS $ 16.95 NZ $14.99
By A.W.Reed
Revised by Peter Dowling
Trade Paperback
RAUPO – NZ $50
I’m not sure how old a title has to be before it can be fairly deemed a classic but for me this title first published by AH & AW Reed is pretty close to earning that definition. I am so thrilled that Penguin Books has brought AW Reed’s incredibly useful and informative book back into print. Not only back in print but updated and revised by Peter Dowling with no fewer than 1500 entries new to this edition making a total of almost 10,000 place names. Bravo Penguin.
Place Names of New Zealand remains unchallenged as the one-stop reference.
How we call places where we live matters deeply. The debate over whether to include an ‘h’ in the official spelling of ’Wanganui’, which raged as Peter Dowling was revising this book, was merely the latest example of how much people set by the spelling and pronunciation of place names. Times don’t appear to have changed this sentiment. In 1844, residents protested vehemently against the giving of the name Petre to the town that was renamed Wanganui as a result. We care about place names because they crystallise our relationships to the land, to the language and to history. Toponymy, the study of place names, can therefore teach us much about ourselves.
Originally published in 1975, ( I well remember selling it at Beattie & Forbes Bookshop, it was a best-seller for us), Place Names of New Zealand quickly became the standard guide to this popular field. It
• explains the origin and meaning of the place names (including competing versions)
• locates places by regions and indicates distances from nearest major localities
• incorporates place names in both Maori and English, and gives the original Maori names for many places renamed during the colonial period
• is updated to incorporate latest official names
• includes an appendix of over 2000 superseded place names
Place Names of New Zealand, prepared with both locals and visitors in mind, is a user-friendly reference work that no library, home, marae or office in New Zealand should be without.
To check it out I looked up Te Hapara, the Gisborne suburb where I spent a large chunk of my childhood, Whitireia, just north of Gisborne near Whangara, and Ngatapa., also near Gisborne and of course they are all there.
About the editor, and original author.
Peter Dowling was born in London in 1965, grew up in Christchurch and graduated with an M.A. (Hons) from the University of Canterbury in 1988. After ten years working in book and magazine publishing in Japan, Europe and Australia, he spent the next ten years with Reed Publishing (NZ), later becoming its publishing manager. In 2002, he edited The Reed Dictionary of New Zealand Place Names.
Now the director of independent publisher Oratia Media, Peter lives in Auckland.
A.W. Reed (Alexander Wyclif) was instrumental in building A.H. & A.W. Reed into New Zealand’s leading publishing house with an enduring list of local books. Reed filled many of the gaps in the book market himself, with a range of reference works and popular accounts of Maori culture. In all, he penned more than 200 books. He died in 1979.
Independent Bookstores See Google as Ally in E-Book Market
By Brad Stone
Published New York Times: June 29, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO — Independent bookstores were battered first by discount chains like Barnes & Noble, then by superefficient Web retailers like Amazon.com.
Now the electronic book age is dawning. With this latest challenge, these stores will soon have a new ally: the search giant Google.
Photo -A partnership with Google may help Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore.
Leah Nash for The New York Times
Later this summer, Google plans to introduce its long-awaited push into electronic books, called Google Editions. The company has revealed little about the venture thus far, describing it generally as an effort to sell digital books that will be readable within a Web browser and accessible from any Internet-connected computing device.
Now one element of Google Editions is coming into sharper focus. Google is on the verge of completing a deal with the American Booksellers Association, the trade group for independent bookstores, to make Google Editions the primary source of e-books on the Web sites of hundreds of independent booksellers around the country, according to representatives of Google and the association.
The partnership could help beloved bookstores like Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore.; Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park, Calif.; and St. Mark’s Bookshop in New York. To court the growing audience of people who prefer reading on screens rather than paper, these small stores have until now been forced to compete against the likes of Amazon, Apple and Sony.
The Google deal could give them a foothold in this fast-growing market and help them keep devoted customers from migrating elsewhere.
Brad Stone's full story at NYT Indie booksellers be sure to read..
By Brad Stone
Published New York Times: June 29, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO — Independent bookstores were battered first by discount chains like Barnes & Noble, then by superefficient Web retailers like Amazon.com.
Now the electronic book age is dawning. With this latest challenge, these stores will soon have a new ally: the search giant Google.
Photo -A partnership with Google may help Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore.
Leah Nash for The New York Times
Later this summer, Google plans to introduce its long-awaited push into electronic books, called Google Editions. The company has revealed little about the venture thus far, describing it generally as an effort to sell digital books that will be readable within a Web browser and accessible from any Internet-connected computing device.
Now one element of Google Editions is coming into sharper focus. Google is on the verge of completing a deal with the American Booksellers Association, the trade group for independent bookstores, to make Google Editions the primary source of e-books on the Web sites of hundreds of independent booksellers around the country, according to representatives of Google and the association.
The partnership could help beloved bookstores like Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore.; Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park, Calif.; and St. Mark’s Bookshop in New York. To court the growing audience of people who prefer reading on screens rather than paper, these small stores have until now been forced to compete against the likes of Amazon, Apple and Sony.
The Google deal could give them a foothold in this fast-growing market and help them keep devoted customers from migrating elsewhere.
Brad Stone's full story at NYT Indie booksellers be sure to read..
NEW YORK BOOKSTORE IMPRESSES
Yesterday I made my first visit to 192 Books so named because it is located at 192 Tenth Avenue (at 21st Street) and I was greatly impressed.
I guess you would describe it as a general interest bookstore but with an emphasis on literature. As well as new books they also carry out of print titles and rare books.
It is clear that thye have many author events in the store as there were many author signed copies of recently published titles. Two of the three titles I bought were signed.
As well as literature there were also good selections of history, art, travel, criticism and a range of children's books too.
Books I bought were:
French Milk by LucyKnisley - Simon & Schuster - Paper - $15
A delightful story of an American mother and daughter celebrating birthdays (50 & 22) by renting an apartment in Paris for a month. The book is the drawn journal kept by the author (daughter). The dedication reads - With thanks to my mother, for holding the map.
Walks with Men - Ann Beattie - Scribner - hardback - $17
Yet to read this but the novella from one of The New Yorker's up and coming fiction writers.
The Postman - Antonio Skarmeta - Norton - paper - $13.95
Translated from Spanish this book was the inspiration for the Oscar-winning movie Il Postino.
Originally published in 1985 it is now something of a modern classic in Chile. Skarmeta has won many awards most recently for The Dancer & the Thief. He lives in santaiago, Chile.
If you are visiting New York I recommend a visit to this fine independent bookstore which has just celebrated its seventh birthday.
And if you are in the area be sure also to walk the most impressive The High Line which you can join at 20th street not far from 192 Books. And just around the block from the bookstore is the gorgeous Le Grainne Cafe, a small French bistro which has great food and coffee - 183 Ninth Avenue.
The High Line is a wonderful new park developed on an elevated railway line established in 1930 but unused since 1980. A must visit when in NYC.
Other NY highlights have included an evening at the American Ballet Theatre (they are celebrating their 70th anniversary) at the Lincoln Center with supper at Balthazar, our favourite NY restaurant, after the show.
Viewing the Henri Cartier-Bresson Exhibition at MOMA, the final day of this impressive photographic retrospective, and an exhibition of Picasso drawings.
A visit to the wonderful Apple Store where I spent a happy hour playing with the new i=Phone 4 and the i-Pad. Boys and their toys!
Off this afternoon to the Metropolitan Museum for something a little more cultural..
More when there is time! What a city..............
Yesterday I made my first visit to 192 Books so named because it is located at 192 Tenth Avenue (at 21st Street) and I was greatly impressed.
I guess you would describe it as a general interest bookstore but with an emphasis on literature. As well as new books they also carry out of print titles and rare books.
It is clear that thye have many author events in the store as there were many author signed copies of recently published titles. Two of the three titles I bought were signed.
As well as literature there were also good selections of history, art, travel, criticism and a range of children's books too.
Books I bought were:
French Milk by LucyKnisley - Simon & Schuster - Paper - $15
A delightful story of an American mother and daughter celebrating birthdays (50 & 22) by renting an apartment in Paris for a month. The book is the drawn journal kept by the author (daughter). The dedication reads - With thanks to my mother, for holding the map.
Walks with Men - Ann Beattie - Scribner - hardback - $17
Yet to read this but the novella from one of The New Yorker's up and coming fiction writers.
The Postman - Antonio Skarmeta - Norton - paper - $13.95
Translated from Spanish this book was the inspiration for the Oscar-winning movie Il Postino.
Originally published in 1985 it is now something of a modern classic in Chile. Skarmeta has won many awards most recently for The Dancer & the Thief. He lives in santaiago, Chile.
If you are visiting New York I recommend a visit to this fine independent bookstore which has just celebrated its seventh birthday.
The High Line is a wonderful new park developed on an elevated railway line established in 1930 but unused since 1980. A must visit when in NYC.
Other NY highlights have included an evening at the American Ballet Theatre (they are celebrating their 70th anniversary) at the Lincoln Center with supper at Balthazar, our favourite NY restaurant, after the show.
Viewing the Henri Cartier-Bresson Exhibition at MOMA, the final day of this impressive photographic retrospective, and an exhibition of Picasso drawings.
A visit to the wonderful Apple Store where I spent a happy hour playing with the new i=Phone 4 and the i-Pad. Boys and their toys!
Off this afternoon to the Metropolitan Museum for something a little more cultural..
More when there is time! What a city..............
Barnes & Noble Drops, Amazon Stops
PublishersLunch
The clobbering of Barnes & Noble's stock continued yesterday after our post following their conference call, down over 19 percent for the day on trading volume more than four times higher than usual. It was the largest one-day drop in the bookseller's shares since November 2001.
At current prices that leaves the company's market capitalization at a little over $750 million (and remember that it was just 9 months ago that the company itself decided the BN College unit was worth $460 million).
In a rough day across Wall Street, Amazon shares declined as well, down approximately 7.5 percent. As many people in the book business already know, Amazon suffered in different fashion yesterday afternoon, experiencing a rare site malfunction that left the US version of the etailer's site unavailable for orders for a matter of hours. The company first acknowledged the site problem in a posting on a message board for third-party sellers at 3:47 Eastern time.
Accounts of how long the outage lasted are anecdotal, running from two to five hours. The company has acknowledged they experienced technical problems but has not commented further on what happened. Reportedly, their web services business was not affected.
PublishersLunch
The clobbering of Barnes & Noble's stock continued yesterday after our post following their conference call, down over 19 percent for the day on trading volume more than four times higher than usual. It was the largest one-day drop in the bookseller's shares since November 2001.
At current prices that leaves the company's market capitalization at a little over $750 million (and remember that it was just 9 months ago that the company itself decided the BN College unit was worth $460 million).
In a rough day across Wall Street, Amazon shares declined as well, down approximately 7.5 percent. As many people in the book business already know, Amazon suffered in different fashion yesterday afternoon, experiencing a rare site malfunction that left the US version of the etailer's site unavailable for orders for a matter of hours. The company first acknowledged the site problem in a posting on a message board for third-party sellers at 3:47 Eastern time.
Accounts of how long the outage lasted are anecdotal, running from two to five hours. The company has acknowledged they experienced technical problems but has not commented further on what happened. Reportedly, their web services business was not affected.
Old stories prove new hits as Binchy takes top spot
30.06.10 | Philip Stone in The Bookseller
Two books that were penned well over 10 years ago, now published by Orion, proved the bestsellers in the UK last week.
But despite setting his strongest ever weekly sale helped by a half-price book-of-the-week spot at W H Smith, Harlan Coben's début novel, Play Dead, has to settle for second position in this week's Official UK Top 50 behind his Orion stablemate Maeve Binchy.
Binchy's The Return Journey, a collection of short stories written for newspapers and magazines, was first published in 1998, but was never available to buy in the UK until last year. Number three in the charts last week, it actually suffered a 12% week-on-week sales decline but climbed two places to top spot. As a consequence, Binchy has earned her 10th number one since Nielsen BookScan Total Consumer Market records began in 2001. Sales were helped by a spot in WHS' "£2.99 if you spend £10 on books" link-save promotion.
Coben's Play Dead was first released in the UK by Piatkus in 1991, and sold 30,180 copies in three days last week—beating Coben's previous weekly sales personal best (set by Long Lost in January this year) by 1,419 copies.
Stephenie Meyer's The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (Atom) suffered a 43% week-on-week sales drop and falls two places to third position overall while James Patterson's I, Alex Cross (Arrow, down 33% week-on-week), falls two places into fourth place.
The mass-market edition of Jodi Picoult's Picture Perfect (Hodder), a Waterstone's till-point proving a modern hit. First published in the US in 1995, the book hit the shelves in the UK for the first time last year following the careful management and staggered-release of Picoult's backlist by her UK publisher Hodder. The publisher began publishing the US novelist in the UK back in 2004.
More interesting stuff at The Bookseller.
30.06.10 | Philip Stone in The Bookseller
Two books that were penned well over 10 years ago, now published by Orion, proved the bestsellers in the UK last week.
But despite setting his strongest ever weekly sale helped by a half-price book-of-the-week spot at W H Smith, Harlan Coben's début novel, Play Dead, has to settle for second position in this week's Official UK Top 50 behind his Orion stablemate Maeve Binchy.Binchy's The Return Journey, a collection of short stories written for newspapers and magazines, was first published in 1998, but was never available to buy in the UK until last year. Number three in the charts last week, it actually suffered a 12% week-on-week sales decline but climbed two places to top spot. As a consequence, Binchy has earned her 10th number one since Nielsen BookScan Total Consumer Market records began in 2001. Sales were helped by a spot in WHS' "£2.99 if you spend £10 on books" link-save promotion.
Coben's Play Dead was first released in the UK by Piatkus in 1991, and sold 30,180 copies in three days last week—beating Coben's previous weekly sales personal best (set by Long Lost in January this year) by 1,419 copies.
Stephenie Meyer's The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (Atom) suffered a 43% week-on-week sales drop and falls two places to third position overall while James Patterson's I, Alex Cross (Arrow, down 33% week-on-week), falls two places into fourth place.
The mass-market edition of Jodi Picoult's Picture Perfect (Hodder), a Waterstone's till-point proving a modern hit. First published in the US in 1995, the book hit the shelves in the UK for the first time last year following the careful management and staggered-release of Picoult's backlist by her UK publisher Hodder. The publisher began publishing the US novelist in the UK back in 2004.
More interesting stuff at The Bookseller.
The Rise of the Author-Entrepreneur
Publishing Perpectives
In a UK complement to our Monday story, Anna Lewis (pic left) of the London-based online self-publishing platform CompletelyNovel.com writes about the idea of "author as entrepreneur" and describes how her company is working together with a growing coterie of authors, as well as businesses and institutions, who want to publish, market, and sell it themselves, bypassing traditional publishing altogether.
Read the article ...
How Can Publishers Benefit from the Author-Entrepreneur?
Can publishers learn from the success of author-entrepreneurs? Or will publishing companies benefit by acquiring authors, who after the hard work of writing, self-publishing and self promotion, realize the benefit a publisher can provide?
Let us know what you think!
Publishing Perpectives
Read the article ...
How Can Publishers Benefit from the Author-Entrepreneur?
Can publishers learn from the success of author-entrepreneurs? Or will publishing companies benefit by acquiring authors, who after the hard work of writing, self-publishing and self promotion, realize the benefit a publisher can provide?
Let us know what you think!
PLACE NAMES OF NEW ZEALAND
Read what editor Peter Dowling has to say about working on this extensively revised, recently released title.
BOY ZERO WANNABE HERO launches with major school holiday programme next week
Attention all wannabe superheroes!
Auckland-based children's author, Peter Millett, caught the eye of prestigious UK publisher Faber & Faber, and they quickly signed him up for his latest series aimed at 7-9-year-olds, BOY ZERO WANNABE HERO. Julia Heydon-Well, Faber's children's publishing director, says that Peter's writing is 'even funnier than Captain Underpants' and the books are 'an absolute gem.'
The BOY ZERO WANNABE HERO series will be launched in New Zealand next week, with the publication of the first in the series - The petrifying plot of the plummeting pants. Peter will be hosting fun school holiday events at libraries around Auckland next week - and they're all free!
All kids and parents welcome.
Meet BOY ZERO WANNABE HERO author, Peter Millett!
Monday 5 July, 2.00pm
Takapuna library, The Strand, Takapuna
Tuesday 6 July, 10.30am
Mt Albert Library, 84 St Lukes Road, Mt Albert
Thursday 8 July, 2.00pm
Remuera Library, 429 Remuera Road, Remuera
Friday 9 July, 10.00am
St Heliers Library, 32 St Heliers Bay Road, St Heliers
Come dressed as a superhero and be in the draw to win a prize! For all children (6-10 year olds in particular). All events are free.
Attention all wannabe superheroes!
Auckland-based children's author, Peter Millett, caught the eye of prestigious UK publisher Faber & Faber, and they quickly signed him up for his latest series aimed at 7-9-year-olds, BOY ZERO WANNABE HERO. Julia Heydon-Well, Faber's children's publishing director, says that Peter's writing is 'even funnier than Captain Underpants' and the books are 'an absolute gem.'
The BOY ZERO WANNABE HERO series will be launched in New Zealand next week, with the publication of the first in the series - The petrifying plot of the plummeting pants. Peter will be hosting fun school holiday events at libraries around Auckland next week - and they're all free!
All kids and parents welcome.
Meet BOY ZERO WANNABE HERO author, Peter Millett!
Monday 5 July, 2.00pm
Takapuna library, The Strand, Takapuna
Tuesday 6 July, 10.30am
Mt Albert Library, 84 St Lukes Road, Mt Albert
Thursday 8 July, 2.00pm
Remuera Library, 429 Remuera Road, Remuera
Friday 9 July, 10.00am
St Heliers Library, 32 St Heliers Bay Road, St Heliers
Come dressed as a superhero and be in the draw to win a prize! For all children (6-10 year olds in particular). All events are free.
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