BTW News Briefs

2012 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Winner Announced

Julie Otsuka has been named the winner of the 2012 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for The Buddha in the Attic (Knopf). Otsuka and the four finalists will be celebrated during the 32nd Annual PEN/ Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony at the Folger Shakespeare Library on May 5.

The four other finalists were:

• Russell Banks, Lost Memory of Skin (Ecco)
• Don DeLillo, The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories (Scribner)
• Anita Desai, The Artist of Disappearance (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Steven Millhauser, We Others: New and Selected Stories (Knopf)

Three judges, chosen annually by the directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, selected the four finalists and one winner from among the more than 350 submitted works by American authors published in the U.S. during the 2011 calendar year.

NCIBA Announces Book of the Year Winners

The winners of the 2012 Northern California Independent Booksellers Book of the Year Awards were chosen in eight categories by booksellers representing 200 indie bookstores. The winning titles were written by local authors and published for the first time in 2011.

The winners are:

• Fiction: Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante (Atlantic Monthly)
• Nonfiction: A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception and Survival at Jonestown by Julia Scheeres (Free Press)
• Food Writing: Mourad: New Moroccan by Mourad Lahlou (Artisan)
• Poetry: Of Indigo and Saffron: New and Selected Poems by Michael McClure (University of California)
• Regional: The Left Coast: California on the Edge by Philip L. Fradkin (University of California)
• Children’s Picture Book: The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man by Michael Chabon and Jake Parker (Balzer & Bray)
• Middle Grade Reader: One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street by Joanne Rocklin (Amulet)
• Teen Lit: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler (Little, Brown)

A full-color poster of the winning titles is being displayed in independent bookstores.

E-Book Versions of Potter Series Go on Sale

On March 27, J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore website began selling e-book versions of the seven titles in the Harry Potter series. The site is the exclusive seller of the titles in e-book format.

The seven books were released simultaneously from shop.pottermore.com, at two price points. In the U.S., the first three titles are $7.99 each and the later four books are $9.99. The digital audio files, featuring narration by Jim Dale, are also available exclusively from Pottermore, priced at $29.99 for the first three books, and $44.99 for the last four.

Charlie Redmayne, Pottermore’s chief executive, told The Bookseller that enhanced e-book editions of the bestselling series are planned, as well as an affiliates program for retailers.

The Bookseller noted that the e-books are being featured on retailer websites, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but can only be bought from Pottermore. “Readers will then be able to securely ‘push’ the digital books to up to eight devices concurrently, including the Sony Reader, Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, or receive an ePub version.” Redmayne told The Bookseller that Pottermore would sign on other retail partners, including the iBookstore, as soon as the Pottermore team could work on the deals. The e-books were simultaneously made available through OverDrive for library users in the U.S. and U.K.

Georgia Senate Recognizes State’s Indie Booksellers

On March 21, the Georgia State Senate adopted a resolution recognizing independent bookstores and commending independent booksellers. Resolution 1219, which was sponsored by six senators, reads in part:

WHEREAS, the independent bookstores of Georgia are valuable cultural resources that contribute greatly to the fabric of this state and the communities which they serve; and

WHEREAS, independent bookstores are locally owned small businesses that hire local employees, buy local supplies, bank locally, hire local attorneys, accountants, designers, artists, computer technicians, and other professionals, advertise in local media, and occupy physical retail space, thereby strengthening communities by circulating a larger share of revenues in the local economy than chain stores or online retailers; and many famous Georgia authors owe their success to independent booksellers who believed in their work and helped make them known to wider audiences, as well as regional and national publishers and editors; and

WHEREAS, independent bookstores are each unique, displaying the individual personalities of their owners and contributing to commercial diversity, making communities more interesting and attractive.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE that the members of this body commend Georgia’s independent bookstores, their owners, and their staff for their invaluable contributions to this state, their creativity and resourcefulness, and the spirit of entrepreneurship they exhibit, which is the foundation of American enterprise.