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National Book Award Winners, Finalists to Appear at Miami Book Fair

The National Book Foundation and Miami Book Fair International are partnering to bring the 20 winners and finalists for the 2014 National Book Awards to Florida to participate in the 2014 Miami Book Fair. The National Book Awards ceremony will take place in New York on November 19 and the winners and finalists will travel to Miami the next day.

Ten nominees in each of the National Book Award’s four categories — Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature — will be announced the week of September 15, and finalists will be announced on October 15.

The Miami Book Fair, sponsored by the Center for Literature and Theater at Miami Dade College, will take place from November 16 – 23. The partnership of the two organizations was made possible by the support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

German Authors Protest Amazon Retaliation Tactics

More than 1,000 German, Swiss, and Austrian authors have signed a letter protesting Amazon’s targeting of authors attached to the Bonnier Group. The letter accuses Amazon of altering its recommended reading lists and lying to customers about the availability of books from certain publishing houses who won’t sell their e-books at a discounted price, according to the New York Times.

German laws provide legal protections for book prices, and that keeps small, independent, specialty publishers thriving.  The German Publishers and Booksellers Association filed a complaint in June accusing Amazon of violating the competition law regarding the e-book market. The complaint is currently under investigation.

 German authors are encouraging readers to write directly to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and to the head of Amazon Germany, Ralf Kleber.

On August 10, a group of more than 900 U.S. authors published a letter in the New York Times under the banner Authors United to protest similar actions by the online giant that are affecting authors of Hachette Book Group.

2014 Hugo Award winners Announced

The 2014 Hugo Award winners were announced at Loncon 3 on Sunday, August 17, in London, England. More than 3,500 ballots were cast by members of the World Science Fiction Convention (“Worldcon”), which is also responsible for administering the awards.

The winners include:

  • Best Novel: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Orbit US/Orbit UK)
  • Best Novella:  “Equoid” by Charles Stross (Tor.com)
  • Best Short Story: “The Water That Falls on You From Nowhere” by John Chu (Tor.com)
  • Best Graphic Story: “Time” by Randall Munroe (xkcd)
  • Best Novelette: “The Lady Astronaut from Mars” by Mary Robinette Kowal (maryrobinettekowal.com/Tor.com)

The full list of this year’s winners can be found here.

Louise Erdrich Wins Ohio Peace Prize

Louise Erdrich, whose works include The Round House and Love Medicine, was named the winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize’s Distinguished Achievement Award on Sunday, August 17. The author, whose mother was Ojibwe-French and whose father was German- American, chronicles contemporary Native American life through characters of mixed heritages and cultures. 

Erdrich writes about America’s history of violence and discrimination concerning religion and culture, reported the Associated Press. The Dayton prizes are reserved for writers whose work cultivates peace, social justice, and global understanding.

Erdrich will receive the award officially on November 9, in Dayton, Ohio.

Lambda Literary Awards Submission Period Opens

The Lambda Literary Foundation is accepting submissions for its 27th Annual Lambda Literary Awards (Lammys) from now until December 1, 2014. The Lammys honor books in more than 20 genres ranging from literary fiction and poetry to speculative fiction, romance, and memoir in the categories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender literature. They also honor groundbreaking work by members of the LGBT literary community.

Books submitted for this year’s awards must be published between January 1 and December 31, 2014, and meet the Lammys’ Submission Guidelines. Finalists will be announced in March 2015 and Lammy Awards will be presented at the Annual Lambda Literary Awards gala planned for early June 2015 in New York City.