BTW News Briefs

Hilary Mantel Wins 2012 Man Booker Prize

Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies has won the 2012 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Mantel becomes only the third author, after Peter Carey and J.M. Coetzee, to win the prize twice, and the the first to win with a sequel (Wolf Hall won in 2009).

“Her resuscitation of Thomas Crowell — and with him the historical novel — is one of the great achievements of modern literature,” said a statement from the Man Booker Foundation, which observed that “there is the last volume of her trilogy still to come so her Man Booker tale may yet have a further chapter.”

The prize, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2008, aims to promote the finest in fiction by rewarding the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, or the Republic of Ireland.

Riskey Named CBA President

CBA, the association for Christian retail, has promoted Curtis Riskey from executive director to president.

“The appointment is an affirmation by the board of Riskey’s leadership, role in the industry and job performance in running the association these past three years,” said CBA Board Chairman George Thomsen.

Riskey said in a statement that CBA will be focusing on strategic direction and growth in coming years not only for the association but also especially for the industry of Christian stores and their trading partners who create Christian resources and materials.

Riskey joined CBA in 2007 and was named executive director in 2010.

Johnny Depp Gets Imprint at HarperCollins

Actor Johnny Depp will have his own imprint at HarperCollins under a deal announced on Monday. The imprint will share its name with his production company, Infinitum Nihil, which means “Nothing is forever.

“I pledge, on behalf of Infinitum Nihil, that we will do our best to deliver publications worthy of peoples’ time, of peoples’ concern, publications that might ordinarily never have breached the parapet,” Depp said in a statement released by HarperCollins. “For this dream realized, we would like to salute HarperCollins for their faith in us and look forward to a long and fruitful relationship together.”

On the imprint’s list for 2015 is The Unraveled Tales of Bob Dylan, which will be complied and based in part on interviews with Bob Dylan by bestselling historian Douglas Brinkley. Dylan and Brinkley are also collaborating on editing and publishing the novel House of Earth, a recently discovered novel by folk musician Woody Guthrie.

BA Plans Website of “Inspired Recommendations”

The Booksellers Association of the United Kingdom and Ireland (BA), which launched an IndieBound marketing program in 2010, is creating a consumer-facing website of “inspired recommendations” for patrons of independent bookstores.

The Bookseller reported that the BA is asking for booksellers to submit their book recommendations for titles they have loved, “hidden gems,” “mid-list classics,” or simply books selling well, through its IndieBound website, with the intention of building up an “antidote to algorithm-based, chart-led, celebrity-endorsed book recommendations”.

The site is expected go live in the coming weeks and will be supported by new point of sale materials.

Meryl Halls, head of membership services for the BA, told The Bookseller: “IndieBound has been growing in strength as a trade brand, and has been a creative force within the BA and within bookshops for a few years, but with the new initiative we will be driving home the value of real bookshops, delivering real recommendations with real passion, to consumers who love books.”