BTW News Briefs

We Need Diverse Books to Host Master Class on Writing, Publishing for Children and Young Adults

Kwame Alexander, winner of the Newbery Medal for his YA book The Crossover, and Jacqueline Woodson, winner of the National Book Award for her middle grade book Brown Girl Dreaming, will lead a Master Class on writing and publishing for children and young adults, hosted by We Need Diverse Books, in conjunction with the Library of Congress. The Master Class was organized by Alexander, who said that a similar class helped jumpstart his career.

The Master Class will take place on Monday, June 13, at the Library of Congress and will be free and open to the public. Students must be 18 or older. Lee & Low will provide travel stipends to two participants coming from outside the Washington, D.C. metro area.

More information about the application process can be found at the We Need Diverse Books website. Applications close on May 31, 2016.

The Master Class will be part of the day-long symposium “Lineage: From The Black Arts Movement to Cave Canem,” which will also include panels and readings at the Library of Congress and the Folger Shakespeare Library.

James Patterson Honored With BEA Industry Ambassador Award

BookExpo America has bestowed its sixth annual Industry Ambassador Award on James Patterson in recognition of his support of reading, booksellers, librarians, teachers, and others who encourage readers.

In announcing the award, BEA said, “Over the course of his lifetime, Mr. Patterson has donated more than $40 million to various academic institutions, libraries, and bookstores supporting literacy. He founded ReadKiddoRead, a non-profit, pro-reading website designed to help parents, teachers, and librarians get kids excited about reading.” In May 2015, Patterson launched JIMMY Patterson, a new children’s book imprint at Little, Brown, which is focused on one goal: turning kids into lifelong readers.” Proceeds from the sales of JIMMY Patterson Books will be devoted to pro-reading initiatives.

NYU Press Joins Ingram Publisher Services

Starting July 2, 2016, Ingram Publisher Services (IPS) will provide full-service distribution to NYU Press.

Other university presses currently working with IPS include Indiana University Press, Minnesota Historical Society Press, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, and Regina University Press.

In the past, NYU Press has worked with Ingram Book Group, Lightning Source, and CoreSource.

Next Generation Indie Book Award Winners Honored

Last week at BookExpo America, the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group honored the winners of its 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. The not-for-profit book awards program recognizes books by independent publishers and self-published authors that deserve to reach a wide audience.

The top prize-winning books in the 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards are:

Nonfiction

• First Place ($1,500 Prize): The Photographing Tourist: A Storyteller’s Guide to Travel and Photography, by David Noyes (D.E. Noyes Studios)
• Second Place ($750 Prize): Sharing Nature: Nature Awareness Activities for All Ages, by Joseph Cornell (Crystal Clarity Publishers)
• Third Place ($500 Prize): Stories of Music, by Holly E. Tripp (Timbre Press)

Fiction

• First Place ($1,500 Prize): Immurement: The Undergrounders Series, Book One, by Norma Hinkens (Dunecadia Publishing)
• Second Place ($750 Prize): Echo From Mount Royal, by Dave Riese (Merrimack Media)
• Third Place ($500 Prize): The Boat Man, by Dustin Stevens (Kindle Direct Publishing)

In addition to the grand prize winners, top indie books were named as winners and finalists in 70 publishing categories ranging from Action/Adventure to Young Adult. A complete list of winners and finalists is available at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards website at www.indiebookawards.com.

HarperCollins Book Studio 16 Launches Shelfie Video Contest

To celebrate the official launch of its YouTube video channel Book Studio 16, HarperCollins Publishers is seeking the best shelfie (a bookshelf selfie) video from readers across the U.S.

Book Studio 16, which showcases authors, cover reveals, compelling reads, and book trailers, is inviting readers to submit their best shelfie at hc.com/shelfiecontest. The grand prize winner will receive $500 worth of HarperCollins print books of their choosing and their shelfie may be featured on the Book Studio 16 channel. Five runners-up may also have their videos added to the channel and will receive $300 worth of print books.

Entrants must be 14 years of age or older. Videos should be no more than two minutes. The contest will commence on May 13, 2016 (12:00 a.m. ET),  and the last entry will be accepted on May 31 (11:59 p.m. ET).

2016 Firecracker Award Finalists Announced

The 2016 Firecracker Award judges have released their list of finalists in the award’s four literary categories: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and magazine.

Devoted to celebrating independent literary publishers and self-published works of high literary merit, the Firecracker Awards are presented by the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses and the American Booksellers Association and represent a revitalized iteration of the Firecracker Alternative Book Award, originally established in 1996.

“ABA is excited to see the return of the Firecracker Awards, and enthusiastically supports the efforts of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses to promote the works of independent literary publishers,” said ABA Development Officer Mark Nichols.

Three ABA member booksellers were among the awards’ judges: Jonathon Welch, owner of Talking Leaves…Books in Buffalo, New York, served as one of three judges for poetry; Brad Johnson, store manager at DIESEL, a Bookstore, was one of three fiction judges; and Molly Rose Quinn, director of public programming at Housing Works Bookstore, served as one of three judges in the magazine category.

The Firecracker Award winners will be announced at the Firecracker Awards Ceremony, held on Thursday, May 19, at Poets House in New York City.

Nebula Award Winners Announced

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) have announced the winners for the 2015 Nebula Awards, which were presented last week at the 2016 SFWA Nebula Conference, which took place from May 12 to May 15 in Chicago.

The Nebula Awards are voted on and presented by active members of the SFWA. Since 1965, the Nebula Awards have been given each year for the best novel, novella, novelette, and short story eligible for that year’s award. The Award for Best Script was added in 2000.

For this year’s winners as well as past winners, visit the Science Fiction Writers of America website. An anthology including the winning pieces of short fiction and several runners-up is also published every year.

Winner of Man Booker International Prize Announced

The Man Booker International Prize has been awarded to The Vegetarian by South Korean writer Han Kang (Hogarth/Portobello), with the £50,000 prize to be shared equally between Kang and her English translator, Deborah Smith.

Established in 2005, the Prize biennially rewards an author for a body of work originally written in any language, as long as it was widely available in English. According to the Prize website, The Vegetarian tells the story of dutiful wife Yeong-hye, whose rebellion from her marriage manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, as she spirals further and further into her fantasies of leaving her earthly body and becoming a tree.

The Vegetarian is Kang’s first novel to be translated into English. Kang was born in Gwangju, South Korea, and currently teaches creative writing at the Seoul Institute of the Arts. Smith, who decided to become a translator at 21 with no previous experience in the field, has done translations from Korean including Kang’s The Vegetarian and Human Acts, and Bae Suah’s The Essayist’s Desk and The Low Hills of Seoul.