BTW News Briefs

Shawn Morin Named CEO and President of Ingram

Ingram Content Group announced on Monday, April 4, that Shawn Morin, the company’s chief operating officer and president, has been promoted to chief executive officer and president, effective immediately.

John R. Ingram will continue to be active as chairman of the company, continuing his own leadership role in the business, particularly in terms of strategy, new business opportunities, and participating in strategic industry relationships.

Morin began his career at Ingram in 2009 as chief information officer. At the end of 2009, he was named president of VitalSource, Ingram’s learning technology division. In 2012, he was named Ingram’s chief operating officer and in January 2015 became Ingram’s president and chief operating officer.

Morin came to Ingram from Bass Pro Shops, based in Springfield, Missouri, where he was chief information officer and vice president of information technology. Earlier in his career, he was a lead engineer at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

HarperCollins Publishers Creates HarperCollins France

HarperCollins Publishers is expanding its Global Publishing Program with the creation of HarperCollins France. On Monday, April 4, HarperCollins announced that, after 30 years of operating Harlequin SA in France as a joint venture with Hachette Livre SA, Harlequin SA will now come under the sole ownership of HarperCollins.

HarperCollins France will continue to publish romance under the ionic Harlequin imprint and will expand its commercial trade publishing with titles from HarperCollins and local authors.

Emmanuelle Bucco-Cancès, managing director of the former Harlequin SA, will become managing director of HarperCollins France.

Columbia University Press Sales Consortium Adds Harvard University Press

Columbia University Press has added Harvard University Press to its Columbia Sales Consortium for sales representation in the U.S. and Canada beginning September 1, 2016.

The Columbia Sales Consortium, which has represented university and scholarly presses to the U.S. book trade for more than 25 years, also includes the University of California Press, Duke University Press, NYU Press, University of Virginia Press, and eight others.

With the inclusion of Harvard University Press, the Consortium will expand its sales representation services into Canada. Order fulfillment and customer service for Harvard University Press will remain with Triliteral.

Imprisoned Egyptian Novelist Wins 2016 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award

PEN America has named imprisoned Egyptian journalist and novelist Ahmed Naji as the recipient of the 2016 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award, which honors writers who have fought courageously in the face of adversity for their right to freedom of expression. Naji is currently serving a two-year sentence in Egypt’s Tora Prison for sexual content depicted in his novel The Use of Life.

Naji is the author of three books and a journalist at the state-funded Akhbar al-Adab literary magazine. He has been a vocal critic of official corruption under the rule of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

PEN America will honor Naji at its annual Literary Gala on May 16 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Other honorees include J.K. Rowling, recipient of the 2016 PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award; Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha and LeeAnne Walters, recipients of 2016 PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award; and Hachette CEO Michael Pietsch, PEN’s publisher honoree.

2015 James Tiptree Jr. Award Winners Announced

The 2015 James Tiptree Jr. Award for feminist science fiction writing will go to Eugene Fischer for his novella “The New Mother” (Asimov’s Science Fiction, April/May 2015) and Pat Schmatz for her YA novel Lizard Radio (Candlewick 2015).

The $1,000 award, which was created in 1991 to honor Alice Sheldon, who wrote under the male pseudonym James Tiptree, Jr., is presented annually to works of science fiction or fantasy that explore and expand gender roles.

This year’s jurors also chose titles to appear on an Honor List. The winners and honorees will be celebrated at WisCon, the feminist science fiction convention in Madison, Wisconsin, to be held May 27 to 30.

2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award Winners Announced

The winners of the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award are Rotraut Susanne Berner of Germany for illustration and Cao Wenxuan of China for writing. U.S. author Lois Lowry was on the award’s shortlist in the writing category.

The Hans Christian Andersen Award is presented every other year by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to a living author and illustrator whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children’s literature.

Biographies of this year’s winners and more information about the award can be found on the IBBY website.

2016 National Book Awards Entry Form Now Open

The entry form and rules for submitting titles for the 2016 National Book Awards are available online to U.S. publishers until May 16, 2016. All titles must be published between December 1, 2015, and November 30, 2016, by U.S. publishers whose offices are in the U.S.

Five judges in each of the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature, including a chairperson, have been announced by the National Book Foundation.

The Foundation will reveal the longlists of 10 books in each category in mid-September; five finalists in each category on October 12; and one winner in each category at the National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner on November 16.

Each winner will receive a prize of $10,000; each finalist will receive a prize of $1,000.

2016 Kirkus Prize Judges Named

Organizers of the 2016 Kirkus Prize have announced this year’s judges in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, and Young People’s Literature. Panels of three judges, composed of a writer, a bookseller or librarian, and a Kirkus critic, will select the prize finalists and winners from among titles published between November 1, 2015, and October 31, 2016 (between October 1, 2015, and September 30, 3016, in Young Readers’ Literature) that have receive a starred Kirkus review.

The 2016 judges are:

• Fiction: Claire Messud, Annie Philbrick, and Gene Seymour
• Nonfiction: Jim Piechota, Chris Schoppa, and Héctor Tobar
• Young Readers’ Literature: Elizabeth Bluemle, Deborah D. Taylor, and Jacqueline Woodson

The finalists will be announced on September 20, 2016, and the winners will be announced on November 3, 2016.