BTW News Briefs

Go Local, Grow Local 2014 Early Registration Discount Ends March 31

Early registration discounting for the Go Local, Grow Local 2014 conference ends March 31. The event, to be held May 8 – 11 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is designed to help attendees develop specific actions and plans to bring about real results for their businesses, particularly those looking to build a buy local campaign, Main Street program, or Chamber of Commerce, or do other work that supports independent businesses and local economies. The event is presented by the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA).

AMIBA is also hosting presentations and workshops for communities looking to develop independent business coalitions. Upcoming events will be held now through the end of May; see the full calendar here.

NCIBA Holding Logo Contest

The Northern California Independent Booksellers Association is running a contest to find a new logo. The winner of the logo contest will receive $500; two finalists will also receive $200 cash prizes. Submissions must be made by April 10, 2014. See the full details of the logo contest here.

Academy of American Poets Launches Poet-to-Poet Project

The Academy of American Poets is initiating the Poet-to-Poet project during this April’s celebration of National Poetry Month. The project is a multimedia effort to invite young people in grades 3 –12 to write and submit poems for possible publication on Poets.org, which is re-launching in April with a new look. Poem submissions are due by April 30 and should be e-mailed to [email protected]. Poems selected for publication will appear on the website in May.

Juan Felipe Herrera, Jane Hirshfield, Edward Hirsch, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ron Padgett, Arthur Sze, and Anne Waldman are among the poets who will share and discuss their poems via video on the Poets.org website and young writers will be invited to craft poems in response.

Common Core-aligned lesson plans for the classroom have been developed to accompany the project and are at Poets.org. Information about Poem in Your Pocket Day, April 24, 2014, is also available on the academy’s website.

Roxana Robinson Elected President of the Authors Guild

The Authors Guild, the largest organization of published book authors in the U.S., elected Roxana Robinson as their president at its annual meeting on Wednesday, March 12. She succeeds author Scott Turow, who served for four years. Authors Judy Blume, Richard Russo, and James Shapiro were elected as co-vice presidents. CJ Lyons joined the Executive Council.

“As writers, we are living in very interesting times. The challenges are huge,” said Robinson, “and I am thrilled to be a part of it all. We’re going to move ahead, we’re going to extend our membership, we’re going to continue to offer practical help and advice and a sense of community to our writers, and we’re going to continue to support the craft of writing.”

National Book Critics Circle Chooses Annual Award Winners

The National Book Critics Circle has announced the winners of its awards honoring the best books published in 2013. Awards were presented to the winners at an event at the New School in New York City on March 13. The winners, chosen by a 24-member board of directors that includes critics and editors from leading publications, are:

• Poetry: Frank Bidart, Metaphysical Dog (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
• Criticism: Franco Moretti, Distant Reading (Verso)
• Autobiography: Amy Wilentz, Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti (Simon & Schuster)
• Biography: Leo Damrosch, Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World (Yale University Press)
• Nonfiction: Sheri Fink, Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital (Crown)
• Fiction: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah (Knopf)

Anthony Marra’s A Constellation of Vital Phenomena (Hogarth) received the John Leonard Prize, which honors debut titles. The 2013 Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing went to Katherine A. Powers, and the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to translator, essayist, and dean of Chicano authors Rolando Hinojosa-Smith.

Penguin Random House to Acquire Santillana Ediciones Generales

Penguin Random House (PRH)  is expanding its international holdings with the acquisition of the trade book business Santillana Ediciones Generales. Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, PRH’s Spanish-language company, will be purchasing Santillana’s Spanish- and Portuguese-language trade book segments. They will be merged with Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. Santillana’s Brazilian trade publishing business, Objetiva, will be purchased by Penguin Random House Brazil.

Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle said, “The union of Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial and Santillana’s trade book businesses will be ideal for bringing Spanish- and Portuguese-language authors to a wider global audience, together with achieving greater international reach for Penguin Random House.”

Consortium Adds Three Presses

Consortium Book Sales & Distribution will be adding three new publishers for distribution for the Fall 2014 season. Titles for all three presses will be available in e-book format through Constellation.

Open Letter launched in 2007 at the University of Rochester in New York and brings international literature to American readers. Consortium will begin distribution for Open Letter on June 1, 2014.

New Vessel Press was founded in New York City in 2012, specializing in the translation of foreign literature into English and offering fiction and nonfiction titles. Consortium will be representing New Vessel Press as of April 1, 2014.

High Conflict Institute Press offers books for business, legal, mental health, human resource, and other professionals with high-conflict clients. The Press operates out of Scottsdale, Arizona, and Consortium will begin distribution on June 1, 2014.