BTW News Briefs

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BookCon Announces Celebrity-Studded Guest List

BookCon has announced its initial list of authors and Hollywood celebrities appearing at the May 14 consumer convention, which follows the BookExpo America 2016 at Chicago’s McCormick Place. BookCon events will include a discussion featuring comedian Chris O’Dowd from the film Bridesmaids and Nick V. Murphy, co-authors of Moone Boy 2: The Fish Detective (Feiwel & Friends), and an appearance by comedian Samantha Bee of The Daily Show, who will talk about her middle grade novel, Cracking Up (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

Bestselling authors who will appear at BookCon include Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows and The Grisha Trilogy, Henry Holt), Meg Cabot (The Princess Diaries, HarperCollins), Danielle Paige (Stealing Snow, Bloomsbury), and Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles, Feiwel & Friends).

Tickets for BookCon went on sale on Thursday, November 12, at noon CST.

HarperOne to Publish New Digital-First Fiction Line, HarperLegend

HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins, has announced the creation of a new line of digital-first fiction: HarperLegend, which seeks to discover new authors and publish their work in e-book format. The publisher has set up an online system seeking submissions of “visionary fiction from new voices that communicates wisdom, insight, and/or personal growth with an overarching theme of transformation.”

Submissions to HarperLegend will be handled digitally via the new imprint’s online system and reviewed by an editorial team. Accepted authors will obtain royalties for the e-book publication of their novels, as well as individualized editorial direction and marketing and publicity guidance.

2015 National Outdoor Book Award Winners Announced

The winners of the 2015 National Outdoor Book Awards (NOBA) were announced this week. NOBA, a non-profit educational program not associated with any publisher or publishing interest, annually recognizes the best in outdoor writing and publishing. Awards are given in categories that include history/biography, outdoor literature (fiction and nonfiction), nature and the environment, and outdoor adventure guidebooks.

A complete list of the 2015 winners, along with reviews, can be found at the National Outdoor Book Awards website.

District of Columbia Library Association Wins 2015 WNBA Eastman Grant

The winner of the Women’s National Book Association’s 2015 WNBA Eastman Grant is the District of Columbia Library Association (DCLA). The annual $500 cash grant, which is given to a library association in a state where there is a WNBA chapter, was created to support librarian professional development or training offered by an official library association.

“The Eastman Grant has been the WNBA’s way of supporting librarians in their efforts to educate the public and spread the word about the love of learning and reading,” said WNBA President Carin Siegfried. “Specifically, it supports continuing education which we feel strongly about as what it means to be a librarian is a constantly evolving definition as technology and access changes every day.”