BTW News Briefs

Marjorie Cole Receives Bellwether Prize for Fiction

On May 5, Barbara Kingsolver announced the 2004 winner of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction. Marjorie Kowalski Cole will receive the $25,000 award for her novel, Correcting the Landscape, which will be published by HarperCollins. Cole has lived in Seattle and Ireland, but since 1966 has been a resident of Alaska, where her novel is set.

Judges Barry Lopez, Anna Quindlen, and Terry Karten selected the novel for the strength of its writing and powerful portrayal of an Alaskan community. Kingsolver, founder of the prize, hailed Correcting the Landscape as "subtle, politically intelligent, and personally mesmerizing…."

The Bellwether Prize is awarded in even-numbered years to an author who has not yet published a major novel. Manuscripts are judged without knowledge of authorship until after the final selection is made. For more information, see www.bellwetherprize.org.

R.R. Bowker Reports U.S. Book Production Soared in 2003

On May 27, R.R. Bowker, a provider of bibliographic data, released statistics projecting that U.S. title output in 2003 increased a staggering 19 percent to 175,000 new titles and editions, the highest total ever recorded. According to Bowker, general adult fiction was one of only three categories to show a decline in 2003, dipping 1.6 percent, to 17,021 new titles and editions. The number of new titles released by the largest trade houses increased a modest 2.4 percent, to 22,914, while total output for university presses declined 2.2 percent, to 12,003.

Output of new juvenile titles continued its upward trend, increasing a stunning 45.3 percent, to 16,283, while the adult categories of biography, history, and religion recorded double-digit increases. For more information, go to www.bookwire.com.

Random House Publishing Group Names Daniel Menaker Executive Editor-in-Chief

On May 25, Gina Centrello, president and publisher of the Random House Publishing Group, announced that Daniel Menaker, senior vice president of the group, has been appointed to the newly created position of executive editor-in-chief. In his new role, Menaker will oversee the editorial activities of the Group's Ballantine imprints and will continue to acquire and edit literary fiction and nonfiction. Jonathan Karp, formerly vice president, editorial director of the Random House imprints, has been promoted to senior vice president, editor-in-chief, reporting to Menaker. Nancy Miller will continue as senior vice president, editor-in-chief of the Ballantine imprints, and will add the title of executive editor, Random House Publishing Group, also reporting to Menaker.