BTW News Briefs
Barbershop Books Wins National Book Foundation’s Innovations in Reading Prize
The National Book Foundation’s annual Innovations in Reading Prize has been awarded to Barbershop Books, which builds child-friendly reading spaces in barbershops.
The organization’s mission is to help black boys ages four to eight to identify as readers by connecting books and reading to a male-centered space and by involving men in boys’ early reading experiences. In the past two years, Barbershop Books has opened reading spaces in more than 50 bookshops in 20 cities across 12 states.
Each year, the $10,000 prize, which is sponsored by the Levenger Foundation, identifies literary activists that have developed innovative means of creating and sustaining a lifelong love of reading.
Barbershop Books will receive the prize at the National Book Foundation’s Why Reading Matters conference on June 15. The organization plans to use the $10,000 prize to fund locations in Little Rock, Arkansas, founder Alvin Irby’s hometown.
Four additional organizations received honorable mentions: Books@Work, the Great Reading Games from Learning Ally, Poetry-in-Motion from the Poetry Society of America, and Reach Out and Read.
Ingram Publisher Services to Distribute Fodor’s Travel
Ingram Publisher Services has added Fodor’s Travel to its list of distribution clients.
Fodor’s is a subsidiary of Internet Brands, which acquired the travel guidebook publisher in 2016. Since 2010, Ingram has been handling sales and distribution for Internet Brands’ Nolo Press.
Fodor’s will be available through Ingram Publisher Services beginning July 1.
Consortium to Distribute Four New Publishers
Consortium Book Sales & Distribution has signed four new publishers for the fall 2017 publishing season: Catalyst Press, Cinestate, Conundrum Press, and Scribe Publications. All four presses begin distribution with Consortium on June 1.
Barnes & Noble Names CEO
Demos Parneros is set to become Barnes & Noble’s fourth chief executive since 2013, the New York Times reported. Parneros had been serving as Barnes & Noble’s chief operating officer since November.
Barnes & Noble formally announced the new appointment on April 27, eight months after firing its chief executive, Ronald Boire. The former CEO was ousted after less than a year on the job, after board members decided he was “not a good fit for the company.” Since then, the company’s executive chairman, Leonard Riggio, who bought the company in 1971, has delayed his retirement to serve as chief executive. Riggio will stay on as chairman when Parneros takes over.
Parneros joined Barnes & Noble last year from a top executive position at Staples, the office supply company, but has virtually no experience in book sales, the Times reported. However, Parneros told the Times that he has undertaken a crash course in the business in the last few months; before joining the company, he also visited dozens of stores around the country to get a feel for the company.
HarperCollins Launches #WhyIRead Campaign
HarperCollins has launched #WhyIRead, a new social media and giving campaign highlighting the importance of literacy.
#WhyIRead is a part of the global campaign to commemorate HarperCollins’ 200th anniversary. The publisher’s dedicated anniversary website features HarperCollins authors, including Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman, and Veronica Roth, sharing their thoughts on why they read, why they write, and what books have influenced them. Readers are encouraged to share their own reading experiences on social media, using #WhyIRead and #hc200.
In conjunction with the new program, HarperCollins will also donate $200,000 to literacy-related charities selected by its employees, including First Book, National Coalition Against Censorship, Room to Read, United Through Reading, and We Need Diverse Books. The donations are made possible by a grant from News Corp, HarperCollins’ parent company.
The publisher has also collaborated with First Book to launch the #WhyIRead sweepstakes. The sweepstakes’ two grand prize winners will have the chance to recommend a First Book-eligible school or program to receive a donation of 1,000 books. The sweepstakes runs from May 1 through June 7.
Edward Gets Messy Wins Inaugural Anna Dewdney Read Together Award
Edward Gets Messy, written by Brooklyn librarian Rita Meade and illustrated by Olga Stern (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers), has been named the winner of the first Anna Dewdney Read Together Award, which commemorates the life and work of the late author/illustrator Anna Dewdney.
This award, sponsored by Penguin Young Readers, the Children’s Book Council, and Every Child a Reader, will be presented annually to a children’s picture book that sparks compassion, empathy, and connection and is also a superb read-aloud.
Meade and Stern will share a prize of $1,000 from the Children’s Book Council, and Penguin Young Readers will purchase and donate 250 copies of Edward Gets Messy to a school, library, or literacy organization chosen by the award winners. There will also be a ceremony on May 4 to honor the book at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Bay Ridge Branch.
2017 Edgar Winners Announced
The Mystery Writers of America has announced the winners of the 2017 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, which honor the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction, and television published or produced in 2016.
The Edgar Awards were presented to the winners at the Mystery Writers of America’s 71st Gala Banquet on April 27 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.
The complete list of 2017 Edgar winners and finalists is available here.
29th Annual Triangle Award Winners Announced
The winners of the 29th annual Triangle Awards, honoring LGBTQ fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and trans literature published in 2016, were presented in New York on April 27.
The Publishing Triangle, the association of LGBTQ people in publishing, began honoring an LGBTQ writer for his or her body of work in 1988; today, Triangle partners with the Ferro-Grumley Literary Awards and the New School’s creative writing program to present an array of awards each spring.