BTW News Briefs

Man Booker International Prize Finalists Announced

Ten writers from 10 different countries have made the list of finalists for the sixth Man Booker International Prize, which honors a writer for his or her achievements in fiction on the world stage. The authors on the 2015 list, announced by the chair of judges, Professor Marina Warner, at the University of Cape Town in South Africa on Tuesday, are:

• César Aira (Argentina)
• Hoda Barakat (Lebanon)
• Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe)
• Mia Couto (Mozambique)
• Amitav Ghosh (India)
• Fanny Howe (United States of America)
• Ibrahim al-Koni (Libya)
• László Krasznahorkai (Hungary)
• Alain Mabanckou (Republic of Congo)
• Marlene van Niekerk (South Africa)

The £60,000 Man Booker International Prize is awarded every two years to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in the English language.

The award is significantly different from the annual Man Booker Prize in that it highlights one writer’s overall contribution to fiction rather than a single novel. The 2015 winner will be announced at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on May 19.

HarperCollins Unveils Go Set a Watchman Cover 

HarperCollins has released the cover for Harper Lee’s highly anticipated new novel, Go Set a Watchman. Like the original edition of Lee’s only previous novel, To KiIl a Mockingbird, this cover also pictures a dark tree. 

The cover, which shows a tree with yellow leaves against a melancholy blue sky, with a train approaching from the distance, reflects the grown-up Scout’s journey in the beginning of Go Set a Watchman from New York to her childhood home of Maycomb, Alabama.

“There are so many wonderful parts of Go Set a Watchman, that it was hard to pick just one iconic image to represent the book,” Michael Morrison, the president and publisher of HarperCollins, said in a statement. “Go Set a Watchman begins with Scout’s train ride home, but more profoundly, it is about the journey Harper Lee’s beloved characters have taken in the subsequent 20 years of their lives.”

The novel, which comes out on July 14 with a first printing of two million copies, has been doing well with preorder sales since its release was announced in February.

Ferguson Librarian to Receive Lemony Snicket Noble Librarians Prize

Scott Bonner, director of the Ferguson Public Library in Ferguson, Missouri, has been selected as the recipient of the second annual Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced with Adversity.

The August 9, 2014, shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, set off a string of protests and civil unrest, but the Ferguson Public Library remained open and engaged, thanks to Bonner and his staff, even when businesses boarded up their windows and the school year was delayed.

In the weeks following the incident, the library was able to offer educational programming and served up to 200 children each day, creating a safe space with the help of volunteers, church groups, and nonprofit organizations. Bonner also organized community groups to offer a broad range of programs and services to help individuals and businesses recover.

The prize, which was established in 2014 by the American Library Association in partnership with the author Daniel Handler, also known as Lemony Snicket, annually recognizes and honors a librarian who has faced adversity with integrity and dignity intact.

Handler will co-present the prize with National Book Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson during the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference & Exhibition on June 28 in San Francisco. Winnings consist of $10,000, a certificate, and “an odd, symbolic object” from Handler’s private collection. 

English PEN Hessell-Tiltman 2015 Shortlist Announced

English PEN has announced the shortlist for the 2015 Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History. The prize, funded by former PEN member Marjorie Hessell-Tiltman’s bequest to English PEN, celebrates the best nonfiction book on a historical subject in any period up to World War II. The shortlist is as follows:

• The Fateful Year by Mark Bostridge (Penguin/Viking)
• God’s Traitors by Jessie Childs (Bodley Head)
• Pagan Britain by Ronald Hutton (Yale)
• The English and Their History by Robert Tombs (Allen Lane)
• In These Times by Jenny Uglow (Faber)

The winning book will be announced on April 15, at the PEN Literary Salon at the London Book Fair. More information on the Hessell-Tiltman Prize, including the competition rules and a full list of past winners, is available on the English PEN website.

Russian Publisher to Receive International Freedom to Publish Award

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) announced Tuesday that Russian publisher Irina Balakhonova, founder of Samokat Publishing House, will be the 2015 recipient of the annual Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish Award.

The prize, which will be presented at the May 29 Children’s Author’s Breakfast at BookExpo America, annually recognizes a book publisher outside the U.S. who has demonstrated courage in the face of restrictions on freedom of expression.

Since 2003, Samokat Publishing House has translated into Russian and published titles by nearly 100 authors from 16 countries, and has consistently encouraged works by Russian children’s book authors. In 2013, Samokat published the young adult book The Jester’s Cap, one of the main characters of which is a boy who undergoes a painful separation from his teacher, a young man who must leave Russia because he is gay.

The book went on to sell 2,000 copies at the same time that the Russian Parliament was enacting laws criminalizing the “promotion of homosexuality for children under 18.” At the time, Balakhonova also organized a conference in Moscow to lobby for repeal of the law.