BTW News Briefs

GLBA Announces Winners of "Get Caught Reading" Contest

On September 5, the Great Lakes Booksellers Association announced that Betsy Pangle, who shops at Schuler Books & Music in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was the winner of its first "Get Caught Reading" Photo Contest. Laurie Rivard, a customer of Butterfly Books in DePere, Wisconsin, was named the runner-up.

Both Pangle and Rivard will be invited to GLBA's fall trade show in Dearborn, Michigan, where they will be honored at the Booksellers Banquet. They will also attend the Children's Book & Author Breakfast and receive tickets to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. In addition, their photos will be featured on a "Readers of the Great Lakes" poster, along with a few others that were submitted to the contest. Their photos, and many others submitted to the contest, can be viewed in a "slideshow" at the GLBA website: http://www.books-glba.org/caughtreading.php.

Booksellers' Handselling Favorite Cold Mountain Coming to Theaters Near You

Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain (Vintage), which won the American Booksellers Book of the Year (ABBY) Award in 1998, will soon be on the big screen. The saga of ill-fated lovers, set during the Civil War in the Blue Ridge Mountains, will be released by Miramax in December. The film stars Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renée Zellweger and is directed by Anthony Minghella. The ABBY, a precursor of the Book Sense Book of the Year Award, was awarded to the book that independent booksellers most enjoyed handselling.

Worldcon '03 Celebrates Hugo Winners

The 61st annual World Science Fiction Convention was held over Labor Day weekend in downtown Toronto. The highlight of the convention was the presentation of the 50th Hugo Awards. Winners included: Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer (Tor) for Best Novel; Coraline by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins) for Best Novella; and Falling Onto Mars by Geoffrey A. Landis (Analog) for Best Short Story.

McGraw-Hill to Publish Harvard Medical School Consumer Health Books

On September 8, McGraw-Hill announced that it has signed an agreement to become the exclusive publisher of Harvard Medical School health books for consumers. The books will be published under the McGraw-Hill imprint of McGraw-Hill Professional, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

Seshadri Winner of James Laughlin Award

Vijay Seshadri was announced as the winner of the 2003 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets for his collection The Long Meadow (Graywolf Press). The James Laughlin Award is given to recognize and support a poet's second book of poetry. Seshadri was born in Bengalore, India. He currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.