Publisher to Make 10th Anniversary a Public Affair

PublicAffairs will be celebrating its 10th anniversary with a special panel discussion, "Social Entrepreneurs: Changing the World," on Saturday, June 2, at BookExpo America.

The topic of the anniversary event, which is co-sponsored by PublicAffairs and the American Booksellers Association, is apropos for a publisher renowned for its socially conscious approach to publishing. "In the 10 years since PublicAffairs was founded," Peter Osnos, founder and editor-at-large of PublicAffairs, told BTW, "the role of social entrepreneurship in for-profit and non-profit fields has become increasingly important. We realized that we had published a number of books by leaders in that process. PublicAffairs, itself, has a comparable mission, so we decided to make that our anniversary focus."

"Social Entrepreneurs: Changing the World" will be moderated by Brian Lamb, founder and chairman of C-Span and author of the Booknotes books series. Panelists will be George Soros, chairman of the Open Society Institute and author of The Age of Fallibility; Wendy Kopp, founder and chair of Teach for America and author of One Day All Children; James Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank and author of the forthcoming A Global Life; Mohammud Yunus, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and author of Banker to the Poor and a book to be published in January 2008 on social enterprises; and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and/or Teresa Heinz, authors of This Moment on Earth.

The discussion will focus on the growing role of social entrepreneurs in solving America's and the world's most serious problems. Over the past generation, social innovators have transformed the way society deals with issues such as poverty, education, health care, the environment and technology.

In addition to the 10th anniversary panel, Osnos said, "In the course of the year, we hope to find other ways to honor our authors and the booksellers who have been so supportive of them."

"Social Entrepreneurs: Changing the World" will be held on Saturday, June 2, from 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. in Room 1C02-04 of the Jacob Javits Convention Center.