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Kindle at Target, Nook at Best Buy; Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan finally arrives in the United States after years of legal tangles; according to the AAP, 2009 book sales declined 1.8 percent; ALA staffers face furloughs due to budget shortfalls; and other news.
ForeWord Reviews, a magazine and online resource for writers, publishers, and purveyors of literature, is holding a video contest for independent press books published in 2009 and 2010. The magazine is asking authors and publishers to enter book trailers of no more than three minutes each by the end of April.
The winning trailer, determined by public voting on the magazine's YouTube page, will receive an Apple iPad. Every eligible video submitted will be screened at Book Expo America, held in New York City in May, in the Indie Press Lounge.
For more about book trailers from our archive, check out Sarah Weinman's "Book Trailers: The Key to Successful Video Marketing" and "Five Successful Book Trailers."
Below is a video trailer for Ninni Holmqist's novel The Unit, translated by Marlaine Delargy and published by indie outfit Other Press in 2009.
Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall wins the Morning News Tournament of Books; the PEN American Center leads a new effort to free writers imprisoned in Iran; visual artists file a suit against Google's digital library initiative; an Egyptian publisher is kidnapped by security officials for publishing a book praising a Nobel Peace Prize winner; and other news.
The Griffin Poetry Prize, which for the past ten years has honored a Canadian and an international poet for a recent collection, has announced the shortlist for the 2010 award. This year, the total prize purse is two hundred thousand dollars, double the amount formerly awarded. Each of the two winners will receive seventy five thousand dollars, and the finalists will be awarded ten thousand dollars apiece.
The shortlisted international titles are:
Grain (Picador) by John Glenday of Scotland
A Village Life (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) by Louise Glück of the United States
The Sun-fish (The Gallery Press) by Eilean Ni Chuilleanain of Ireland
Cold Spring in Winter (Arc Publications) translated from the French of Valerie Rouzeau by Susan Wicks of England
The shortlisted Canadian titles are:
The Certainty Dream (Coach House Books) by Kate Hall
Coal and Roses (The Porcupine's Quill ) by P. K. Page
Pigeon (House of Anansi Press) by Karen Solie
This year's judges, Anne Carson—the 2001 Canadian winner—Kathleen Jamie, and Carl Phillips selected the finalists from nearly four hundred entries from twelve countries, twelve of which were translations. The winners will be announced on June 3 after a reading in Toronto on the previous day.
In the video below, the late P. K. Page, who was also shortlisted for the 2003 award, reads from her collection Planet Earth. In 2001 this poem, also titled "Planet Earth," was read simultaneously in several locations around the globe to celebrate the United Nations International Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations.
A rare Jane Austen book sells for nearly half a million dollars; Publishers Weekly is acquired by a former publisher; the Academy of American Poets mixes a few cocktails; Thomas Hardy's last living acquaintance protects the author's work; and other news.
HarperCollins imprint HarperStudio will close after only two years; n+1 editor scores high six figures for debut novel; AWP's annual conference kicks off on Wednesday in Denver; Rock Bottom Remainders rocks out for Haiti; and other news.
"I still think women lag behind in winning the major awards, and they lag behind in getting critical attention," says Bubon. "So there’s still a need for Women & Children First and stores like it that push the emphasis toward women writers."
Co-owner Ann Christophersen says what she loves most about bookselling is being "surrounded by books and the people involved in writing, publishing, selling, reading, and talking about them."
"The goal of my life has been to get the word out, to understand women’s lives," says co-owner Linda Bubon. "We have to continue to evolve and change if we’re to have a full share, and if our daughters are to have a full share of the world."
