BTW News Briefs

SIBA Announces 2009 Book Award Winners

On July 4, the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) announced the winners of the 2009 SIBA Book Awards as selected by a jury of SIBA booksellers. This year's winners are:

• Fiction: Serena by Ron Rash (Ecco)

• Poetry: Dear Darkness by Kevin Young (Knopf)

• Cookbook: Screen Doors and Sweet Tea by Martha Hall Foose (Random House)

• Nonfiction: The Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg (Random House)

• Children's: Two Bobbies by Kirby Larson & Mary Nethery (Walker & Company)

• Young Adult: Graceling by Kristin Cashore (Harcourt Children's)

NRF Documents Increases in Shoplifting Rates

Preliminary results of the latest National Retail Security Survey, released at the National Retail Federation's Loss Prevention Conference and EXPO, show that retail shrinkage averaged 1.52 percent of retail sales in 2008, up from 1.44 percent in 2007. According to the survey, total retail losses increased last year to $36.5 billion, up from $34.8 billion in 2007. The survey is a collaborative effort between NRF and the University of Florida.

According to the survey, the majority of retail shrinkage last year was due to employee theft, at $15.9 billion, which represented almost half of losses (44 percent). The survey found that 14 percent of those cases involved collusion with outsiders. Shoplifting accounted for $12.7 billion (35 percent) of losses. Other losses included administrative error ($5.4 billion and 15 percent of shrinkage) and vendor fraud ($1.4 billion and 4 percent of shrinkage).

University of Arkansas Press Announces Winner of Inaugural Poetry Prize

Michael Walsh of Minneapolis has won the University of Arkansas Press' inaugural $5,000 Miller Williams Poetry Prize for his poetry collection, The Dirt Riddles. The book will be published in the spring of next year.

Walsh will give a featured reading at the 2010 Arkansas Festival of Writers, sponsored by the university's programs in creative writing and translation. Walsh previously published a chapbook, Adam Walking the Garden, and has another chapbook, Sleepwalks, forthcoming. He has been a recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship and a residency at the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies.

Latest Edition of SBA's "The Small Business Economy" Now Available

The 2009 edition of "The Small Business Economy," the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy's annual report to the President is now available online. The report includes chapters focusing on the state of small business (with brief subsections on small business challenges such as health care and globalization, as well as contributions in job creation and innovation) and financing. Appendices include additional data on small firms and a summary of Advocacy research published in 2008. A research summary is also available.

St. Martin's Announces Two Staff Promotions

St. Martin's Press has announced the promotion of Matt Baldacci, vice president, director of marketing and publishing operations/hardcover, and Anne Marie Tallberg, marketing director/SMP Paperbacks, to vice president and associate publisher of their respective divisions.