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National Book Foundation to Honor E.L. Doctorow, Maya Angelou

The National Book Foundation will be awarding novelist E.L. Doctorow its 2013 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters for his achievements in fiction writing and will present the 2013 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community to Dr. Maya Angelou for the enrichment that her works have brought to the literary world throughout her lifetime.

The awards will be given on November 20 at the 64th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner in New York City.

Judy Blume to Receive NAIBA’s Legacy and Carla Cohen Free Speech Awards

Author Judy Blume will receive both the Legacy Award and the Carla Cohen Free Speech Award at the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association’s banquet on October 1 in Somerset, New Jersey, during the fall trade show.

NAIBA called Blume “a longtime advocate of intellectual freedom” who has worked against censorship since the 1980s, both on her own and with the National Coalition Against Censorship. She is also the editor of Places I Never Meant to Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers (Simon & Schuster).

The Legacy Award, established in 2004, recognizes Blume’s work as a significant contribution to the compendium of American arts and letters and her work’s reflection of the NAIBA region and its bookselling community.

Blume is currently on the board of the Author’s Guild, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Key West Literary Seminar, and the National Coalition Against Censorship. She is also the founder of the educational charitable foundation The Kids Fund.

Hugo Award Winners Announced

The 2013 Hugo Award winners have been revealed, with 17 awards being given out for excellence in writing in the field of science fiction and fantasy. The awards ceremony was held at LoneStarCon 3 in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday, September 1.

The winners included:

  • Best novel: Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas, by John Scalzi (Tor)
  • Best novella: The Emperor’s Soul, by Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)
  • Best novelette: “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi,” by Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity, Solaris)
  • Best short story: “Mono no Aware,” by Ken Liu (The Future is Japanese, VIZ Media LLC)

See the full list of award winners here.

Amazon Begins Collecting Sales Tax in Georgia, Virginia

Amazon.com began collecting and remitting sales tax in Georgia and Virginia on September 1.

Sarah Pishko, owner of Prince Books in Norfolk, Virginia, told the Alliance for Main Street Fairness, “This is a step in the right direction, but at best it’s only half the job. Congress needs to finish the job and take action to ensure that all retailers play by the same rules. It's time to restore true fairness to the marketplace.”

The Marketplace Fairness Act has been passed by the U.S. Senate and is awaiting consideration by the House.