BTW News Briefs

National Book Foundation Presents Next Generation of Fiction Writers

Five young fiction writers will be recognized by the National Book Foundation at the "5 Under 35" celebration at Tribeca Cinemas on Monday, November 17. The five writers were selected by a previous National Book Award finalist or winner as someone whose work is particularly promising and exciting and is among the best of a new generation of writers.

The 2008 "5 Under 35" are: Matthew Eck, The Farther Shore (Milkweed Editions); Keith Gessen, All the Sad Young Literary Men (Viking); Sana Krasikov, One More Year: Stories (Spiegel & Grau); Nam Le, The Boat (Knopf); and Fiona Maazel, Last Last Chance (FSG).

The "5 Under 35" celebration is the kick-off event for National Book Awards week.

October Is National Reading Group Month

This October will mark the second annual celebration of National Reading Group Month, sponsored by the Women's National Book Association (WNBA), to promote reading groups and to celebrate the joy of shared reading. "Reading groups are to the literary world what slow food is to our fast food nation. They encourage people to slow down, read and think deeply about themes, characters, plot," said WNBA President Joan Gelfand. "They encourage discourse in a culture where most communication is one-way."

The organization is collaborating with readers, publishers, trade organizations, bookstores and libraries in annual National Reading Group Month events. The signature event, to be held in Seattle at University Book Store on October 20, will spotlight bestselling authors Nancy Pearl (Book Lust, More Book Lust and Book Crush, Sasquatch Books) and Nancy Horan (Loving Frank, Ballantine), along with Stesha Brandon (University Book Store), Mary Ann Gwinn (Seattle Times, Book Editor), Cheryl McKeon (Third Place Books), and Rebecca Willow (Parkplace Books).

Release Date Set for Paperback Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The paperback edition of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released on July 7, 2009. According to Scholastic, the initial print run of two million paperback copies of the final volume in the Potter series will bring the total number of the seven Harry Potter books in print to over 143 million in the U.S. alone.

On December 4, the Children's High Level Group, the English charity, co-founded by J.K. Rowling and Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, MEP, to protect and promote children's rights and make life better for vulnerable young people, will publish The Tales of Beedle the Bard in cooperation with Scholastic, Bloomsbury, and Amazon.