BTW News Briefs

Sweden’s  Tomas Tranströmer Wins Nobel Prize

Eighty-year-old Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer has won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its announcement on Thursday, the Swedish Academy said of Tranströmer: “Through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality.”

Tranströmer has written more than 15 collections of poetry, many of which have been translated into English and 60 other languages. Recent English translations include:

• The Half-Finished Heaven: The Best Poems of Tomas Tranströmer, chosen and translated by Robert Bly (Graywolf Press, 2001)
• The Deleted World – Bilingual ed. / new versions in English by Robin Robertson (Enitharmon Press, 2006)
• The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems, translated from the Swedish by Robin Fulton (New Directions, 2006)
• The Sorrow Gondola = Sorgegondolen, translated by Michael McGriff & Mikaela Grassl (Green Integer, 2010)

A complete bibliography is available on Nobel Prize website. The prize includes an honorarium of about $1.5 million.

National Book Foundation Honors 5 Under 35

The National Book Foundation will recognize the 2011 “5 Under 35,” five young fiction writers selected by National Book Award winners and finalists, on Monday, November 14, during a celebration at powerHouse Arena in DUMBO, Brooklyn.

This year’s 5 Under 35 honorees are:  

•  Shani Boianjiu, The People of Forever Are Not Afraid (Hogarth/Crown Publishers, forthcoming in 2013)
• Danielle Evans, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self (Riverhead Books, 2010)
• Mary Beth Keane, The Walking People (Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009)
• Melinda Moustakis, Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories (The University of Georgia Press, 2011)
• John Corey Whaley, Where Things Come Back (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2011)
  In August, indie booksellers chose Where Things Come Back as one of the ABC Group at ABA’s New Voices titles for 2011.

The celebration will be hosted by filmmaker and author John Waters, with poet and National Book Award finalist Patricia Smith as DJ. More information is available on the National Book Foundation website.

Rakoff Wins Thurber Prize

On Monday, David Rakoff was named the winner of the 2011 Thurber Prize for American Humor for his book, Half Empty (Doubleday/Random House), at ceremony at New York’s Algonquin Hotel. 

A two-time recipient of the Lambda Literary Award, Rakoff is also the author of Fraud and Don’t Get Too Comfortable. He is a regular contributor to Public Radio International’s This American Life, and his writing has appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines, as well as in Best Music Writing, The Best American Travel Writing, and The Best American Non-Required Reading.

The runners-up for the Thurber Prize were Mike Birbiglia for Sleepwalk With Me and Other Painfully True Stories (Simon & Schuster) and Rick Reilly for Sports From Hell: My Search for the World’s Dumbest Competition (Doubleday/Random House).

Sale Date for Potter E-Books Moved to 2012

The Pottermore Shop, which will sell the Harry Potter e-books and digital audiobooks, will not open until the first half of 2012, according to a blog post this week on Insider, the official blog of J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore website.

The post noted that, because of high levels of activity on the Beta site, the decision was made to extend the testing period beyond September so that a different approach could be taken in the way new users are brought onto the site.

At present, the Pottermore site is only open to those participating in the Beta; however, the blog post noted that at the end of October registration would be opened to everyone, and registered users would be given access in phases.

Tor.com to Feature Indie Bookstore Science Fiction/Fantasy Picks

Tor.com, a site for science fiction and fantasy readers, is now featuring a monthly recommended-reading list chosen by an indie bookseller. “Each month, we’ll ask an independent bookseller from somewhere in the universe what they think we should be reading,” the site’s editors said. “At the same time you’ll get a little bit of information about the booksellers themselves. We’ll not only be showcasing great reading lists but also putting a spotlight on the many wonderful independent homes for SF&F books around the world.”

On the first week of each month, Tor.com will feature recommendations from one of these indies:

• Borderland Books in San Francisco
• BookPeople in Austin
• University Book Store in Seattle
• Forbidden Planet in the U.K.
• Bakka Phoenix Books in Toronto
• Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego
• Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon
• and others

Currently featured are the picks from Borderlands Books. The site also features picks from Barnes & Noble buyer Jim Killen.

Lerner to Distribute Barrington Stoke

Lerner Publisher Services has signed a deal to become the exclusive distributor of Barrington Stoke titles in the U.S. and Canada, effective spring 2012. The Edinburgh-headquartered publishing company produces titles for “at risk” readers.

“Barrington Stoke has a breadth of great titles for struggling readers and is known for producing high-quality books by big-name authors including Catherine Fisher and Frank Cottrell Boyce,” said David Wexler, executive vice president of Sales for Lerner Publishing Group. “By distributing Stoke Books through Lerner Publisher Services, we will provide them with access to market share that they cannot reach on their own through our established, successful sales and distribution channels.”