BTW News Briefs

BEA Adds Sunday "Meet the Bestsellers"

On Tuesday, April 8, BookExpo America (BEA) announced the addition of "Meet the Bestsellers" to this year's Special Events programming. The event, on Sunday, June 1, from noon to 2:00 p.m. will feature Dean Koontz (Odd Hours, coming from Bantam Dell in May) and Michael Connelly (The Brass Verdict, coming from Little, Brown in October) and will include a free box lunch to all attendees.

The authors will be interviewed on stage by Carol Memmott, book critic for USA Today, and a short Q & A with the audience will follow. Luncheon attendees will also have the opportunity to meet the authors during an exclusive autographing session following the speaking portion of the program.

"Meet the Bestsellers" will take place in Room 403AB and will be first-come, first-served.

"We are creating 'Meet the Bestsellers' as a special annual venue where booksellers may hear some of the country's most successful and established authors speak in a casual setting," said Lance Fensterman, vice president and show manager for BEA. "On top of this, we have also been eager for several years to establish an event on Sunday that would round out our programming and would send our attendees home on a positive and 'high' note. Without a doubt, 'Meet the Bestsellers' accomplishes all these goals."

SCIBA Serves Up Literacy at Annual Dinner

The Southern California Independent Booksellers Association held its annual Children's Books and Literacy Dinner on March 29 at the Pasadena Hilton. The event, which seeks to increase literacy among the state's school children, introduces bookstores, authors, illustrators, and their books to school librarians, teachers, and administrators.

Headlining this year's event were Frank Beddor (The Looking Glass Wars), Dean Lorey (Nightmare Academy), and Jon J Muth (Zen Ties). Robin Preiss Glasser, "dressed to the Fancy Nancy hilt," acted as mistress of ceremonies.

"The average number of books per child in local school libraries is 12, compared with the national average of 25," said Jennifer Bigelow, SCIBA executive director, in a statement. "The services offered by our members help schools enhance their literacy programs by not only enriching classroom and library book collections, but with tailor-made initiatives to promote the use and enjoyment of children's books and improve the quality of reading instruction. Relationships with independent booksellers often result in many benefits such as author visits and book fairs that online booksellers and box stores can't provide."

SCIBA members, including Vroman's Bookstore, Art Plantae, Mysterious Galaxy, Mrs. Nelson's Book Shop, Once Upon a Time, Village Books, Yellow Book Road, Village Book Shop, and Blue Chair Children's Books, served up ideas to get and keep kids hooked on books. More than 2,000 books were signed by more than 20 authors for attendees to take back to their school classrooms and libraries.

Other participants in the event were the California Center for the Book and Youth Ink Well Publishing. Books were provided by Random House, Candlewick, HarperCollins, Scholastic, Henry Holt, Farrar Straus & Giroux, Bloomsbury, Penguin, Harcourt, and Simon & Schuster.

Griffin Poetry Prize Announces Shortlist

On Tuesday, April 8, Scott Griffin, founder of The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry and David Young, trustee, announced the Canadian and International shortlist for this year's prize. The Griffin Poetry Prize is awarded annually for the two best books of poetry, including translations, published in English in the previous year.

The seven finalists -- three Canadian and four International -- will be invited to read in Toronto at the MacMillan Theatre on Tuesday, June 3. The winners, who each receive C$50,000, will be announced on Wednesday, June 4, at the eighth annual Griffin Poetry Prize Awards Evening.

Canadian Shortlist

• The Holy Forest: Collected Poems of Robin Blaser, by Robin Blaser (University of California Press)
• Notebook of Roses and Civilization, by Nicole Brossard; translated by Robert Majzels and Ern Moure (Coach House Books)
• Why Are You So Sad? Selected Poems of David W. McFadden, by David McFadden (Insomniac Press/4 a.m. Books)

International Shortlist

• Notes From the Air: Selected Later Poems, by John Ashbery (HarperCollins/Ecco)
• Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems, by Elaine Equi (Coffee House Press)
• The Complete Poetry: A Bilingual Edition, by Cesar Vallejo; translated by Clayton Eshleman (University of California Press)
• Selected Poems 1969 - 2005, by David Harsent (Faber and Faber)

ABC Names 2008 E.B.White Read Aloud Award Winners

On Monday, April 7, the Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC) announced the recipients of its fifth annual E.B. White Read Aloud Awards. The winner of the 2008 award for Picture Books is When Dinosaurs Came With Everything, written by Elise Broach, and illustrated by David Small (S&S). In a statement, ABC said of this most-nominated picture book, the selection committee loved "the perfect combination of wonderful writing, whimsical illustration, and imaginative premise."

The winner of the E.B. White Read Aloud Award for Older Readers is The Myterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers). "The committee loved the appeal of [this] story for a wide ranges of ages, and felt it was destined 'to become a classic,'" said the ABC statement.

Both awards will be presented during Book Expo America, at ABC's "Not a Dinner and (Mostly) Silent Auction" on Friday, May 30, at the Hollywood and Highland Center in downtown Hollywood, California. Both authors will also be signing copies of the award winners in the ABC booth at BEA the following day.

2008 Pulitzer Prize Winners Announced

The winners of the 2008 Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism, Letters, Drama, and Music were announced on Monday, April 7, by Columbia University.

Among the winners in the category of Letters, Drama and Music are:

• Fiction: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead)
• General Nonfiction: The Years of Extermination by Saul Friedlander (HarperCollins)
• Biography: Eden's Outcasts by John Matteson (Norton)
• Poetry: Time and Materials by Robert Hass (Ecco/HarperCollins) and Failure by Philip Schultz (Harcourt)
• History: What Hath God Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe (Oxford University Press)
• Drama: August: Osage County by Tracy Letts

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao won the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in March. And Robert Hass, one of two Pulitzer winners named in the field of poetry, is also the recipient of the 2007 National Book Awards for Time and Materials.