Book News

In February 2000, when Irish poet, writer, and musician Ciaran Carson was asked to translate Canto XXXI of Dante's The Inferno, Carson had yet to read the epic poem in its entirety. Now, a scant three years later, Carson's energetic translation (The Inferno of Dante Alighieri, Granta) is garnering strong praise from critics and readers.

On Monday, March 10, NBC News' Today Show announced that the ninth selection of its monthly "Today Book Club" is Caramelo, by Sandra Cisneros (Knopf). The title was a November/December 2002 Book Sense 76 pick.

Two top ten March/April Book Sense 76 picks are recommended to consumers by booksellers with Book Sense in upcoming ads in national magazines.

In the March 31 issue of The New Yorker, on sale March 24, Jeff Azbill of Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Jackson, Tennessee, recommends The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Doubleday).

The Final Confession of Mabel Stark by Robert Hough (Atlantic Monthly) is the recommendation of Alissa Haslam of Broadway Books in Portland, Oregon, in an ad in the May issue of The Atlantic Monthly.

The Southeast Booksellers Association has announced the winners of the association's 2003 Book Awards, which "seek to recognize the year's best books out of the South."

The winners are:

Gabriel Brownstein, author of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apt. 3W (Norton), has been awarded the 2003 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, as reported by the Boston Globe. The sponsors of the award -- PEN/New England and the John F.

The American Booksellers Association has announced the finalists for the 2003 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards. The finalists in six categories -- Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Children's Literature, Children's Illustrated, Rediscovery, and Paperback -- are all Book Sense 76 titles nominated by ABA bookseller members as their handselling favorites. The awards will be announced at the Celebration of Bookselling, on Friday, May 30, during this year's BookExpo America, at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California.

In a February 26 ceremony, held at the New School in New York City, the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) announced the winners of its annual book awards. The Fiction prize was awarded to British author Ian McEwan for Atonement (Doubleday/Nan A. Talese). McEwan's novel was a Top Ten March/April 2002 Book Sense 76 pick.

1. WHAT DO WE KNOW, by Mary Oliver (Da Capo, $15 paper, 0306812061; March '03) "Oliver again turns her luminous eye to the natural world, invoking its mysteries, its darkness and beauty. These are poems of wonder and praise for the sea, the seasons, the mockingbird, the clam -- and for the human spirit that watches and listens." -- Diana Sabot, The Galaxy Bookshop, Hardwick, VT

By Carl Lennertz

Recent 76 Mentions in Publisher's Own Ads

The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) has announced the winners of its 2003 book awards. Independent booksellers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska chose six titles by Northwest authors to receive special recognition.

The awards will be presented at the 37th PNBA Awards Banquet, which will be on March 15 at the PNBA's spring trade show in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

The winners are:

Erik Larson estimates he spent "about two solid years" researching The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (Crown), his new nonfiction work telling the parallel stories of Daniel Hudson Burnham, the man responsible for the construction of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, and Dr. H.H.

The Southeast Booksellers Association has released the names of the nominees for its 2003 Book Awards. The winners will be announced on March 4, and the awards will be presented at a dinner ceremony on April 4 at the Park Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The nominees are:

Fiction

1. THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, by Erik Larson (Crown, $25.95, 0609608444; Feb. '03) "Larsen tells the parallel stories of two men racing to meet their destinies: one creating the 1893 Chicago World's Fair against incredible odds, and one becoming America's first real serial killer. The otherworldly beauty and utopian vision of the fair make a stark contrast to the harsh realities of life just a few blocks away where on dark, dirty streets young women were disappearing by the dozens.

Finalists for the 15th Annual Lambda Literary Awards, honoring "the best and the brightest" in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered publishing, have been announced by the Lambda Literary Foundation. The finalists in 20 categories were chosen after a rigorous selection process. Awards will be presented at a gala banquet at BookExpo America in Los Angeles, May 29, 2003.

Scholastic's "Harry Potter Bookseller Desk" has released a fact sheet answering a number of key questions regarding the publication of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is scheduled to be published on June 21, 2003.

Included in the FAQs is information regarding shipping, delivery requirements, Scholastic's on-sale date contract and affidavit, carton quantities, and more.