BTW News Briefs

SIBA Announces Award Winners

On Tuesday, June 20, the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) announced the winners of the 2006 SIBA Book Awards, celebrating the best of Southern literature, as picked by independent booksellers throughout the South. The 2006 Winners are:

• Fiction: Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson (Warner Books)
• Poetry: What Travels With Us by Darnell Arnoult (LSU Press)
• Cookbook: Being Dead is No Excuse by Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays (Miramax)
• Nonfiction: Marley & Me by John Grogan (William Morrow)
• Children's: Rosa by Nikki Giovanni (Henry Holt)

Winners will be recognized with a $500 prize at the SIBA Book Awards Luncheon, sponsored by Baker & Taylor, at the regional trade show in Orlando on September 8. The winning books are also placed in the SIBA Holiday Catalog, and SIBA offers $50 in co-op to any core member store that provides evidence that they promoted the SIBA book awards in their store. Shelf-talkers will be provided to SIBA member bookstores that place orders with Baker & Taylor by calling (800) 775-1800. Posters and shelf-talkers will also be available on the SIBA website for download soon. For more information, visit SIBA online at www.sibaweb.com.

Random House's Liebmann and Kimball Move Up

This week, Paul E. Kozlowski, vice president and director of independent retail field sales for Random House announced that Ruth Liebmann, director of independent bookselling, had been promoted to vice president, and named director of retail field marketing and merchandising, a newly created position, effective immediately. She will continue to report to Kozlowski.

In his announcement, Kozlowski wrote, "Ruth, who began her career at Random House in 1995 as a New York City sales rep, has done a superlative job representing Random House, our titles, and our authors to the American Booksellers Association, Book Sense, and the regional bookseller associations." In her new position, Ruth will take on additional responsibilities: the Events Department and Retail Field Sales staff now will report to her, as will the new position of NAMR/Backlist Manager, who soon will be announced.

Also this week, Jaci Updike, vice president and director of Random House adult sales, announced the promotion of James Kimball, sales director of the Knopf Publishing Group, to vice president, effective immediately. "With his insightful understanding of the marketplace and of the daily realities and opportunities facing our field and home-office reps," Updike noted, "he has been a valued advisor to the Knopf Group and indispensable to us all in helping realize our hardcover and paperback sales goals for their broad range of frontlist and backlist titles."

Hammett Prize Winner Announced

On June 10, at an award ceremony in Toronto during the Bloody Words mystery convention, the North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers announced that Alibi by Joseph Kanon (Henry Holt) has been named the winner of the organization's annual Hammett Prize for a work of literary excellence in the field of crime writing. The author received a bronze trophy.