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NCAC Praises School for Rejecting Censorship

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) is praising a California school board for rejecting calls to restrict classroom reading following a controversy involving a book about a transgender girl.

Several months ago, a transitioning kindergartner at Rocklin Academy selected Jessica Herthel’s I Am Jazz (Dial Books) as her choice for story time reading, but some parents became angry that they had not been notified in advance, with some threatening to sue. In response, the NCAC sent a letter prior to the upcoming school board meeting in support of the school’s decision to allow the reading, citing California educational standards, which promote broad cultural literacy.

The board voted unanimously to keep the provision unchanged but adopted a provision to forewarn parents prior to the teaching of potentially controversial subject matter. NCAC warned that doing this may invite complaints that disrupt the educational process.

The entire letter can be found on the NCAC website.

Independent We Stand Award Nominations Now Open

Independent We Stand (IWS) has announced its 2017 Independent Small Business of the Year Awards, also known as the Indies, which are given annually to an IWS member.

The grand prize package includes a marketing makeover, $5,000 cash, $1,000 to go to the winner’s favorite small business organizations, a $1,000 STIHL equipment certificate, and a 12-month subscription and three months of free managed marketing services from SnapRetail, among other prizes.

The nominated business must be or become a business member of Independent We Stand, meet the qualifying guidelines, be a for-profit business, and be located in the U.S. Those who own their own businesses can become a member for free.

Anyone is eligible to make a nomination, including business owners and employees. Visit the Independent We Stand website to nominate a business.

Attempt to Clarify California Collectibles Law Moves Forward

The move to clarify California’s controversial collectibles law to exempt books appears to be moving forward, according to the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) newsletter. The Senate bill (SB 579) exempts books, and signs indicate that the Assembly will accept the exemption in the final bill.

At present, the law requires sellers of signed books and artwork to provide the buyer with a certificate of authenticity (COA) for any item sold for $5 or more. Many booksellers have expressed concern to their state lawmakers that this law would apply to general bookstores and author signing events, which would require booksellers to generate a COA for every signed book.

Tuttle to Join PGW in January 2018

Tuttle Publishing has signed a multi-year print sales and distribution deal with Publishers Group West for distribution in the U.S., effective January 2018.

Tuttle is a leading independent publishing company of books on Asia, established in 1948 in Rutland, Vermont, and Tokyo, Japan, by Charles Egbert Tuttle, Jr. The company has published more than 6,000 books and today maintains an active backlist of around 1,700 titles; Tuttle currently publishes 150 new titles a year.

PGW, an Ingram Publisher Services brand, will continue to distribute Tuttle’s e-books while also handling the publisher’s gift sales. Simon & Schuster had provided print fulfillment services for Tuttle for the past five years.

Founder of Roaring Brook Press to Leave

Simon Boughton, founder of Roaring Brook Press and senior vice president and publishing director of that imprint, will be leaving Macmillan Children’s after 13 years with the company. Boughton was also the publishing director for the FSG Children’s and First Second imprints.

Jennifer Besser, the president and publisher of Putnam Children’s, will take over the position at Macmillan Children’s starting October 30.

Globe Pequot Publisher to Retire

Jim Childs, publisher of Rowman & Littlefield’s trade division, Globe Pequot Press, will retire on October 31, Publishers Weekly reported. After joining the company in September 2014, Childs oversaw the acquisition of Stackpole Books, Sheridan House, and Gooseberry Patch and developed a strategy to publish books for regional markets.

Childs has spent 40 years in publishing, including as president of Time Home Entertainment and publisher of Oxmoor House. He has also held positions at Prentice-Hall, the Wall Street Journal, HarperCollins, John Wiley, and Taunton Press.

Rowman & Littlefield CEO Jed Lyons will serve as publisher-at-large until a successor is named, PW reported.

New BALLE Executive Director Named

The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) has named a new executive director: Rodney Foxworth. BALLE is a nonprofit that represents communities, entrepreneurs, and investors who are using business to create healthy local economies.

Foxworth, a 2016 BALLE Local Economy Fellow, has spent his career on social entrepreneurship and economic development. Most recently, he founded Invested Impact, a consulting firm and intermediary, to help individuals and institutions better invest in social change leaders and enterprises.

Previously, Foxworth worked at BMe, a national leadership network of African-American men, and at Job Opportunities Task Force, an advocacy organization focused on workforce development issues affecting low-wealth communities.

National Book Foundation Announces 5 Under 35 Honorees

The National Book Foundation has announced the 2017 5 Under 35 honorees, a selection of debut fiction writers under the age of 35 whose literary work shows great promise.

Authors are selected by National Book Award winners, finalists, or writers previously recognized by the 5 Under 35 program. This year, all five winners were women, the second time this has happened in the award’s history.

The 2017 winners are:

  • Lesley Nneka Arimah, author of What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky: Stories (Riverhead), selected by Chris Bachelder
  • Halle Butler, author of Jillian (Curbside Splendor), selected by Lydia Millet
  • Zinzi Clemmons, author of What We Lose (Viking), selected by Angela Flournoy
  • Leopoldine Core, author of When Watched: Stories (Penguin Books), selected by Karan Mahajan
  • Weike Wang, author of Chemistry (Knopf), selected by Sherman Alexie

The 2017 5 Under 35 honorees will each receive a $1,000 prize at a ceremony on November 13. The full 5 Under 35 announcement is available at New York Magazine’s The Cut.

National Book Foundation Announces Two Special Awards

The National Book Foundation has awarded Scholastic Chairman, President, and CEO Dick Robinson the 2017 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. Following the news, Robinson, who helped bring Harry Potter to the U.S., was profiled in the New York Times.

The NBF also announced that Annie Proulx, author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain, has been awarded an honorary National Book Award for lifetime achievement, the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Both awards will be presented at the 68th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner on November 15.

PEN Center USA Announces 2017 Literary Award Winners

PEN Center USA has announced the winners of this year’s literary awards, to be presented at a ceremony in Los Angeles on October 27. The 2017 honorees are:

  • Fiction: Black Sheep Boy by Martin Pousson (Rare Bird Books)
  • Creative Nonfiction: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (Random House)
  • Research Nonfiction: The Perfect Horse by Elizabeth Letts (Ballantine)
  • Poetry: Look by Solmaz Sharif (Graywolf Press)
  • Young Adult: Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers)
  • Translation: Confessions by Rabee Jaber, translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid (New Directions)
  • Journalism: “The White Flight of Derek Black by Eli Saslow (published in the Washington Post)
  • Drama: Roe by Lisa Loomer

More information about the awards can be found on the PEN Center USA website.

Financial Times, McKinsey Announce Business Book of the Year Shortlist

The Financial Times, a U.K.-based financial news outlet, and McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, have announced the shortlist for the 2017 Business Book of the Year Award.

Now in its 13th year, the award annually recognizes a work that provides the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues. The 2017 shortlist is as follows:

  • The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History by David Enrich (WH Allen, U.K.; Custom House, U.S.)
  • Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein (Simon & Schuster)
  • Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought by Andrew W. Lo (Princeton University Press)
  • The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone by Brian Merchant (Bantam Press, U.K.; Little, Brown, U.S.)
  • Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change by Ellen Pao (Spiegel & Grau)
  • The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century by Walter Scheidel (Princeton University Press)

The winner will be announced at a dinner ceremony in New York on November 6 at the Lotte New York Palace. He or she will be awarded £30,000, and £10,000 will be awarded to the authors of each of the remaining shortlisted books.

To help promote the shortlist, The Financial Times and McKinsey are also providing free retail displays and bookmarks to booksellers. Among the U.S. indie bookstores using the displays to support the award are Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C.; Vroman’s in Pasadena, California; and BookPeople in Austin, Texas. To get these materials, contact Mark Fortier.