(View entire post here)

The Penguin Press Brings Home Three 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards

The winners for the 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards were announced earlier this week and two Penguin Press authors, Michael Pollan and Ruth Reichl, brought home three awards.

Michael Pollan won his second James Beard Award for In Defense of Food in the Writing and Literature category. He won his first award for The Omnivore’s Dilemma. And Ruth Reichl, author of Not Becoming My Mother, won the award for Multimedia Writing on Food for her essay “The Test Kitchen” which appeared on Gourmet.com and the Magazine Feature Writing about Restaurants and/or Chefs award for her essay “The Last Time I Saw Paris…” featured in the September 2008 issue of Gourmet magazine.

Last year, Penguin Group (USA) won two James Beard Awards as well. Imbibe: From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, A Salute in Stories and Drinks to "Professor" Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar by David Wondrich (Perigee) won best book in the Wine & Spirits category, while Junot Díaz author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead), won the M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award for his essay "He'll Take El Alto," featured in the September 2007 issue of Gourmet Magazine.

The James Beard Foundation Awards are the nation’s most prestigious recognition program honoring professionals in the food and beverage industries.
 

Sue Grafton Named Grand Master at 63rd Annual Edgar Awards Banquet

The 63rd Annual Edgar Awards Banquet took place last week and in addition to the two Penguin Group (USA) winners reported in last week’s Spotlight, Marian Wood/Putnam author Sue Grafton was named a co-Grand Master. The Grand Master Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Mystery Writers of America. It recognizes lifetime achievement and consistent quality. Grafton is pictured here with Otto Penzler, owner of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York, and founder of The Mysterious Press, who presented her with the Poe statuette. 

People of the Book Wins Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fiction

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Viking/ Penguin) has been selected to win this year’s Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fictional Work, given by the Media Ecology Association. The Media Ecology Association (MEA) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting the study, research, criticism, and application of media ecology in educational, industry, political, civic, social, cultural, and artistic contexts, and the open exchange of ideas, information, and research among the Association’s members and the larger community. The award, which honors a work that includes media ecology themes, concepts, or insights, will be presented at the annual Media Ecology convention, which is held June 18-21, at Saint Louis University.

Explore our People of the Book feature to find the reading group guide, a Q&A with author Geraldine Brooks, and a hand-drawn map inspired by the book.
 

Penguin’s Roger Whitehouse Selected as Finalist for Translation Prize

Roger Whitehouse, translator of the Penguin Classic, The Beast Within, by Emile Zola has been named a finalist for the 22nd Translation Prize of the French American and the Florence Gould Foundation in the fiction category. The award honors superior English translations of French works published in 2008. By honoring outstanding translations among publishers and readers alike, the Foundation encourages the greater understanding of French works of substantial merit for the American public, drawing public attention to the very best new translations of the current year.
 

Riverhead’s Aleksandar Hemon Contributes to The New Yorker’s National Magazine Award

At the 44th annual National Magazine Awards, presented by American Society of Magazine Editors, The New Yorker won the fiction award with a citation for Riverhead author Aleksandar Hemon’s “The Noble Truths of Suffering." The story appeared in the September 22nd issue of The New Yorker. This category recognizes excellence in magazine fiction writing and honors the quality of a publication’s literary selections.

The awards are the industry’s most prestigious editorial honors for print and online magazines that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative editorial techniques, journalistic enterprise and imaginative design.

To read Hemon’s winning story, click here.

Penguin Weekly Update, Literary Awards, Penguin Books