BTW News Briefs

Lawrence, Kansas, Resolution Condemns Patriot Act

On Tuesday, April 20, the Lawrence City Commission approved a resolution condemning the USA Patriot Act, as reported by the Lawrence Journal-World. Lawrence is the first community in Kansas to go on the record in opposition to the act, LJW noted. The resolution gives a list of provisions that should be repealed, including Section 215, which gives the FBI broad authority to ascertain records from libraries and bookstores, and directs the Lawrence Public Library to place signs up to warn patrons about Section 215, the LJW article said.

Lambda Literary Foundation Picks Winner of Editor's Choice Award

On April 21, the Lambda Literary Foundation announced that Terry Castle's The Literature of Lesbianism (Columbia University Press) will receive the Editor's Choice award at this year's Lambda Literary Awards banquet. The award is given to books that, in the opinion of the editors of the Lambda Book Report, are of exceptional merit and deserve greater recognition.

Terry Castle is the Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University. She is the author of six books, including The Apparitional Lesbian and Boss Ladies, Watch Out!. She is a regular contributor to the New Republic, The London Review of Books, and other publications.

The Lambda Literary Editor's Choice Award will be presented June 3 at the 16th Annual Lambda Literary Awards gala banquet at the Chicago Mart Plaza Hotel in Chicago. Tickets are $125 for the dinner, $175 for the dinner and gala. For more information or to order online, go to www.lambdalit.org or call (202) 682-0952.

Winners of the 2003 Nebula Awards Announced

The Science Fiction Writers of America recently announced the winners of the 2003 Nebula Awards for best science fiction or fantasy. The winners were:

• Best Novel: The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon (Ballantine);
  
• Best Novella: Coraline by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins);
  
• Best Novelette: "The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford (SCI FICTION at SciFi.com);
  
• Best Short Story: "What I Didn't See" by Karen Joy Fowler (SCI FICTION at SciFi.com); and
  
• Best Script: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair, and Peter Jackson (New Line Cinema)
  

For more information on the Nebula Awards, go to http://www.sfwa.org/news/04nebwin.htm.

Avalon to Acquire Four Walls Eight Windows

Charlie Winton, chairman and CEO of Avalon Publishing Group, has announced that Avalon has reached an agreement to acquire independent publisher Four Walls Eight Windows. The transaction is scheduled to close on May 31. Upon completion of the deal, Four Walls will merge into Avalon under the Thunder's Mouth Press imprint, and current Four Walls publisher John Oakes will become a vice president of Avalon and the publisher of Avalon imprints Thunder's Mouth Press and Nation Books.