BTW News Briefs

New York's Coliseum Books is back. On Tuesday, June 17, the city's largest independent bookstore reopened, across from the New York Public Library and Bryant Park.

The original Coliseum, on Broadway and 57th Street, closed in January 2002 when its lease ended and the rent skyrocketed. Though the new store is smaller than the original, with 8,500 square feet of selling space, it stocks nearly as many titles as before -- an estimated 100,000. Other new features have been added as well. An adjoining cafe, opening in July and serving sandwiches, coffee, and pastries, will be the site for readings, art exhibits, and book signings starting in September. A monthly newsletter and a Web site (www.coliseumbooks.com) will provide updates on store events, promotions, and featured titles. --DG

On June 10, Horn Book, Inc. announced the winners of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards for Excellence in Children's Literature. First presented in 1967, the awards are given in three categories: Fiction and Poetry, Nonfiction, and Picture Book. This year's winners are:

Fiction and Poetry: The Jamie and Angus Stories, by Anne Fine, illustrated by Penny Dale (Candlewick)

Nonfiction: Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey, by Maira Kalman (Putnam)

Picture Book: Big Mamma Makes the World, by Phyllis Root, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury (Candlewick)

The 2003 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award ceremony will be held at the Boston Athenaeum in Massachusetts on October 3, 2003. --KS

In a June 12 memo to its employees, Random House, Inc. announced the formation of a new Random House Adult Sales (RHAS) Department, which will unite and take the place of the former Ballantine, Bantam Dell, Doubleday Broadway, Audio, and Large Print Sales team, known in-house as B3D2, and the Random House Trade Sales Department. The change, the memo noted, is part of a "further organizational evolution of the Random House Sales Group, one that completes the integration efforts begun five years ago when Random House and Bantam Doubleday Dell first merged."

Additionally, as part of these changes, Madeline McIntosh, former leader of the B3D2 Sales Department, was appointed senior vice president, director of sales for RHAS; Joan DeMayo, former vice president, director of sales for Random House Children's Books, was named vice president of the Random House Children's Sales Department.

At the management level, RHAS will be aligned to comprise two sales director teams: the Account Sales Directors, dedicated to customers, and the Imprint Sales Directors, focused on Random House's publishers and titles. At the selling level, there will be little structural realignment. Additionally, Random House said that no positions would be eliminated as a result of the new alignment. --DG