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Firecracker Award Winners Announced

On Wednesday night, the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) announced the winners in six categories for its revitalized Firecracker Awards, which celebrate and promote literary works from independent literary publishers and self-published authors. The ceremony was held in Brooklyn, New York, at powerHouse Arena in DUMBO.

The winning books will be featured on bookmarks and other marketing materials in ABA’s Red Boxes. “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 Mark Nichols, development officer for the American Booksellers Association.

The Firecracker Awards were originally established in 1996 as the Firecracker Alternative Book Awards. Mitchell Kaplan of Florida’s Books & Books and John Evans of California’s DIESEL, A Bookstore, were among this year’s judges.

The 2015 Firecracker Award winners are:

  • Creative Nonfiction: Self-Portrait in Green, by Marie NDiaye (Two Lines Press)
  • Fiction: Song of the Shank, by Jeffery Renard Allen (Graywolf Press)
  • Graphic Novel: Beauty, by Hubert & Kerascoët (NBM Publishing)
  • Poetry: Sonnets: Expanded 25th Anniversary Edition, by Bernadette Mayer (Tender Buttons Press)
  • Young Adult: Some Boys, by Patty Blount (Sourcebooks)
  • Magazines:
    For Poetry: Poetry Magazine
    Best Debut: Story
    General Excellence: Tin House

Horn Book Award Winners Announced at BEA

The winners of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards were announced on Wednesday at BookExpo America. The awards will be presented at the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards Ceremony on October 2 at Simmons College in Boston.

This year’s winners and honorees are:

Picture Book Winner: The Farmer and the Clown, by Marla Frazee (Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division)

  • Honor Books: It’s Only Stanley, by Jon Agee (Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin Group USA); Once Upon an Alphabet, by Oliver Jeffers (Philomel Books/Penguin Group USA)

Fiction Winner: Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms, by Katherine Rundell (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

  • Honor Books: Egg & Spoon, by Gregory Maguire (Candlewick Press); Challenger Deep, written by Neal Shusterman and illustrated by Brendan Shusterman (HarperTeen/HarperCollins Publishers)

Nonfiction Winner: The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia, by Candace Fleming (Schwartz & Wade Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books)

  • Honor Books: The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club, by Phillip Hoose (Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers/Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group); Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson (Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Group USA)

BISG Names New Executive Director

The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) has hired Mark Kuyper, currently the president and chief executive officer of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), to succeed Len Vlahos as the organization’s new executive director. He will start at BISG on June 15.

Kuyper has spent nearly 30 years working in the publishing industry in different capacities. Prior to ECPA, he was an executive at the Christian Retail Association and sales director for Nav Press. He has also served on the BISG Board for the past 10 years.

“I am thrilled to join the team at BISG,” Kuyper said in a statement. “The organization has a rich history of bringing peers together to solve problems, advance new ideas, and enable the profitable delivery of content to readers—I’ve been proud to be involved in that mission as a Board member, and am honored to have the opportunity to now lead the staff.”

Vlahos, who resigned from BISG effective June 12, will join the management team of Denver’s Tattered Cover Book Store, and will eventually assume operational control of the business with his wife, Kristen Gilligan.

Amazon Changes Revenue Reporting in Some EU Countries

Since May 1, Amazon has been reporting revenues from its operations in Britain, Germany, Italy, and Spain rather than funneling these sales through the low-tax haven of Luxembourg, according to media reports. “By altering how it reports its revenue, the online retailer may become liable for larger tax charges in certain nations, though it may still be able to reduce its tax burden through other complex accounting practices,” according to the New York Times, which noted that American tech companies have come under increased pressure to pay more tax on their operations in the 28-member European Union.

Amazon said that the changes to how it reported revenue from its European operations had started more than two years ago.

Apple and Amazon are also under investigation by the European Commission for receiving unfair state support through low-tax agreements in Ireland and Luxembourg, respectively.

WNDB Partners With YA Runs a 5K

We Need Diverse Books will receive a $3,000 grant from YA Runs a 5K, a campaign that promotes diverse reading and healthy living. The two organizations are partnering to create the BJ Joseph Grant for WNDB. The $3,000 grant will help WNDB address the lack of diverse, non-majority narratives children’s literature. An effort to raise funds for the grant is currently underway at gofundme.com/yarunsa5k.

YA Runs a 5K co-creator Melody Simpson, a blogger at Hollywood the Write Way, said that she will be giving away the majority of the ARCs she receives at BookExpo America 2015 to those who donate to the cause. Writing critiques from literary agents, authors, and TV writers, (signed) books, and other thank you gifts are being offered to those who donate $30 or more.

Anyone who donates $1 to $29 will be entered into a raffle to receive a gift that includes an Epic Reads book bundle.

YA Runs a 5K will also run and walk The Super Run, a superhero-themed 5K, which will take place in Philadelphia on June 6, 2015. A virtual 5K is also being held, and anyone who donates at least $15 and pledges to run or walk their own 5K will receive YA Runs a 5K bookmarks.