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Two Penguin Young Readers Group Authors Up For 2008 World Fantasy Awards

In addition to the adult nominations reported in last week’s Spotlight, two authors from the Penguin Young Readers Group are also up for honors for the 2008 World Fantasy Awards. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's The Coyote Road (Viking, Summer 2007; Firebird, Spring 2009) is a finalist for Best Anthology, and Kij Johnson's story, "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change," is also a finalist in the Short Story category.

The winners will be announced at the 2008 World Fantasy Convention, October 30th to November 2nd at the Hyatt Regency Calgary in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The awards are presented during the Awards Banquet, held on the last day of the convention. To see a complete list of the nominees as well as more information about the convention, visit the World Fantasy Convention website.

Penguin Classics Partners with Union of Concerned Scientists to Find a New Generation of Environmental Writers

Penguin Classics has partnered with the Union of Concerned Scientists to carry the legacy of classic environmental writers Emerson and Thoreau into the 21st century, it was announced today. Penguin and the science group are inviting aspiring writers and photographers to submit their personal stories and images about global warming for a new online book, Thoreau’s Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming, to be published in 2009 by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world.

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New York, New York, September 8, 2008.

As a service to the readers who already bought The Age of Turbulence by former Federal Reserve Chairman Dr. Alan Greenspan, Penguin Group (USA) announced today the publication of the first Penguin "eSpecial," a stand-alone item created exclusively from the new epilogue written for the paperback edition of this international bestseller which goes on sale September 9 and will be available to download later that day.

"With the 'eSpecial' Penguin will have the ability as a publisher to provide eBook readers with the most current and up-to-date information as it unfolds," said John Fagan, eBooks Marketing Director. "In this launch case, we know that many who read the hardcover or eBook edition of The Age of Turbulence would be interested in the new material written by Dr. Greenspan without having to buy the whole book again. We thought the 'eSpecial' item was an affordable and an instant way to provide this."

Published to complement the hardcover edition, this Penguin "eSpecial" will be for sale simultaneously with the new Penguin Books paperback and eBook editions that the epilogue was created for. The epilogue updates Dr. Greenspan's view of economic changes in the U.S. economy, including the current credit crisis, since the original publication of the book in September 2007.

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All The World's A Grave: A New Play by William Shakespeare. It is, as advertised, a new play by W.S.. All of the text is plucked from the known works.

The question leveled at me: in Heaven's name, why?

After much wearing thought, the short answer ...

That's sort of like asking me why I exist, and as to that: I'm not sure.

Many months ago, when I could still entertain the question—before the answer become so multi-faceted and lugubrious and overwhelming—I penned an essay, an answer. Penguin/Plume mercifully whittled down the 30 pages to 13 (which can be found at the end of the book).

The reasons ...

Culture: an American atavism. Education: the uninspired U.S. classroom. Personal: me, the street-urchin "mutt." Literary: buy new books. Technological: the ways we have changed, the ways literature is growing. Political: our wanton war.

The answer after that: I'm a writer. You know what the mountain climber will say.