2010 HEMINGWAY FOUNDATION/PEN AWARDS and 2010 L.L. WINSHIP/ PEN NEW ENGLAND AWARDS
Sunday, March 28th, 3:00 p.m.
JFK Presidential Library
2010 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award
Judges: Julia Glass, Michael Lowenthal, and Gail Tsukiyama
Winner
BRIGID PASULKA
A Long Long Time Ago and Essentially True (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Finalists
C.E. Morgan for All The Living (FSG)
Abraham Verghese for Cutting For Stone (Knopf)
Honorable Mentions
Mary Beth Keane for The Walking People (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Lydia Peelle for Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing (FSG)
2010 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Awards
Judges: Dorothy Allison, Tim Seibles, and Michael Steinberg
Fiction
ANNE SANOW
Triple Time (University of Pittsburgh Press)
Poetry
MEG KEARNEY
Home By Now (Four Way Books)
Nonfiction
ELYSSA EAST
Dogtown (Free Press/Simon & Schuster)
DOROTHY ALLISON, Keynote Speaker
Comments Off
NPR recently wrote a review of Marilyn Johnson’s How Librarians Can Save The World and inspired me to also express my enthusiam for the new release. I fondly remember my town’s library, located directly across from my elementary school. I recall the safety of the library, how a police officer was always at the cross walk to help kids get safely from one education to another. I remember finding the book I wanted and finding a nice spot where no one would bother me, and pouring my imagination into whatever I found. The librarians weren’t the nicest people… but they weren’t the meanest. I still stop in wonder when I enter a library: how many thoughts, histories, and stories do we have at our fingertips? How could we ever be bored in this life?
This type of nostalgia is something most people can relate to on one level or another, and that is why I’m excited for Johnson’s tesimony for librarians!
To read more about the book, click here!
Comments Off
Premiere.com features a list of movies that were superior to the books that inspired them. 
Comments Off
John Wray’s Lowboy is a delightfully strange read that I just couldn’t put down. Although the novel’s premise — sixteen-year old Will “Lowboy” Heller is a paranoid schizophrenic who’s escaped from a mental hospital and is on a quest to lose his virginity, but not for the reason most sixteen-year old boys try to lose their virginity; he’s convinced that it’s the only way to save the planet from global warming — is fairly absurd, Wray’s ability to evoke the sights and sounds of the New York underground as well as the fractured reality which Will inhabits is electric. While Will and his friend, Emily Wallace, navigate the subway system, Will’s mother and an NYPD detective frantically search Manhattan for the two. Lowboy is compelling start to finish, utterly unique, and immensely tender, and Wray’s characters stick with you long after the novel’s end.
Comments Off
Publisher’s Weekly reports that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has acquired the rights to a new Young Adult novel that retells the Anne Frank story, from the viewpoint of a different narrator. Annexed by Sharon Dogar is narrated by Peter van Pels, who was a boy that shared the attic space with Anne Frank and others.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/452305-HMH_Children_s_Buys_Buzzed_About_Anne_Frank_Novel.php
Comments Off
The Harry Ransom Center library and museum at the University of Texas, Austin, has acquired the archive of author David Foster Wallace, who committed suicide in 2008. The archive, which will be available to researchers in the fall, includes handwritten notes and drafts of Infinite Jest, as well as poems he wrote as a child, his personal library, and college writings.
The notes for the book the author was working on at the time of his death, The Pale King, will be kept by the publisher until the novel is published in 2011.
The New York Times reports:
There is also a copy of his dictionary, in which he circled words, and heavily annotated copies of books by Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, John Updike and others. Mr. Wallace’s writing journal, which includes personal reflections, story ideas, names and plots, as well as articles on boredom, tax shelters and credit-card fraud are also included.
Comments Off
Last week, we were moved when The Heart and the Bottle arrived on our shelves. The quirky illustrations grabbed us immediately, and yet the collages within the pages spoke for something much more than quirkiness. So we started reading, and the story bewitched us. I myself was near tears. I highly recommend this touching children’s book to anyone and everyone!
“There is a wonder and magic to childhood. We don’t realize it at the time, of course . . . yet the adults in our lives do. They encourage us to see things in the stars, to find joy in colors and laughter as we play.
But what happens when that special someone who encourages such wonder and magic is no longer around? We can hide, we can place our heart in a bottle and grow up . . . or we can find another special someone who understands the magic. And we can encourage them to see things in the stars, find joy among colors and laughter as they play.
Oliver Jeffers delivers a remarkable book, a tale of poignancy and resonance reminiscent of The Giving Tree that will speak to the hearts of children and parents alike. ” (Product Description)
Comments Off
NPR recently talked to Heidi Durrow, author of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky. The debut work has been getting a lot of attention, and won the 2009 Bellwether Prize for being a work of fiction that addresses social justice issues. Durrow was inspired by her own experience of searching for identity as she wrote the book. To read more about The Girl Who Fell From the Sky and to read an excerpt, click here.
Comments Off
Pakistani-American author Daniyal Mueenuddin has won the $20,000 Story Prize for his debut story collection In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. The Story Prize is awarded annually to the author of the year’s most outstanding story collection. Victoria Patterson and Wells Tower were awarded $5,000 honorary prizes for their respective collections Drift and Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned.
Comments Off
Less than four months after Sarah Palin’s memoir, Going Rogue, hit bookshelves and best-seller charts, the former Alaska governor is back at her writing desk. HarperCollins announced today that there will be a second book from the former governor of Alaska. This is how you turn a spot on an unsuccessful ticket into a ticket to success, or at least public visibility.
According to the publisher, the as-yet untitled book will be a “celebration of American virtues and strengths,” and will include excerpts chosen by Palin from and about people who have inspired her. Lately, Palin has remained a ubiquitous presence in the public consciousness, whether by Facebook-fighting with Family Guy, appearing on the newly reconstituted The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, or embracing her new gig as a commentator for Fox News.
Click here to see more.
Comments Off