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Berkley Author Julie Hyzy Wins Two Awards at the 2009 Boucheron

Berkley Prime Crime author Julie Hyzy has won two awards for her book, State of the Onion: A White House Chef Mystery: the Anthony Award and the Barry Award in the Best Paperback Original category. Both awards were presented this past weekend in Indianapolis at Bouchercon, the largest annual meeting in the world for mystery lovers.

The Barry Awards are named for one of the most beloved ambassadors of mystery fiction, Barry Garner, and are voted on the readers of Mystery News and Deadly Pleasures. The Anthony Awards are named for Anthony Boucher, one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America, and are among the most prestigious awards in the world of mystery writers.

Julie Hyzy’s new White House Chef Mystery, Eggsecutive Orders will be out in January 2010 and features the White House Easter Egg Roll.
 

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Penguin’s Ann Lauterbach Is Named Finalist for 2009 National Book Awards

The 2009 National Book Awards finalists were announced this week and Penguin's Ann Lauterbach is among those selected in the Poetry category for Or to Begin Again. The winner in each of four categories – Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and People's Literature – will be announced at the 60th National Book Awards Benefit Dinner and Ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on Wednesday, November 18th. Each winner will receive $10,000 and a bronze statue, and each finalist will receive a bronze medal and $1,000.

The Foundation will also announce the winner of its Best of the National Book Awards Fiction Poll where Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow (Penguin) was one of the six finalists.

In addition, as reported last week, Ceridwen Dovey, author of Blood Kin (Viking/Penguin), has been selected by 2008 National Book Award Fiction Finalist Rachel Kushner for the National Book Foundation’s fourth annual “5 Under 35” Honor, which recognizes and celebrates the next generation of fiction writers, as determined by past National Book Award winners and finalists.

To view the complete list of 2009 finalists, click here.

And, to vote for the best National Book Award Fiction winner, click here.

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The Help, Audible.com’s Highest Rated Audio Book Ever, Wins South Africa’s Exclusive Books’ 2009 Boeke Prize

The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn Books/ G. P. Putnam’s Sons) is now the highest rated audio book ever sold by Audible.com, one of the largest distributors of downloadable audio books. The 4.89 star rating is based on 2,013 consumer ratings (a majority being 5 stars, with the overall number of reviews/ratings increasing daily) of the Penguin Audio edition of The Help, narrated by Cassandra Campbell, Jenna Lamia, Octavia Spencer and Bahni Turpin.

The Help’s ever-growing success, with nearly 740,000 copies in print and the still the longest-running New York Times bestseller currently on the hardcover fiction list, now at #5 in its 27th week, continues to extend to other parts of the world.

This week, The Help won Exclusive Books’ 2009 Boeke Prize in South Africa. The Boeke Prize is a South African book award, modeled after the UK's Man Booker Prize and sponsored by Exclusive Books, South Africa’s largest retail book chain. Although “boeke” is the plural of “book” in the Afrikaans language, the Boeke Prize has only been awarded to novels written in English. The competition was launched in 1995 and 11 of the 14 winners have been debut novels, including The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead), which was a co-winner in 2004. The books are judged by a panel of book critics based in South Arica.

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Two Gotham/Avery Authors Take Home Coveted Emmy Awards 

Gotham and Avery authors sure are busy: both Jim Kakalios and Diana Holtzberg have taken home Emmy awards The author of Gotham’s The Physics of Superheroes, as well as a physics professor at the University of Minnesota, Kakalios won an Upper Midwest Regional Emmy Award in the “Advanced Media: Arts/Entertainment category for his YouTube video “The Science of Watchmen." As the on-set science consultant for the hit 2008 movie The Watchmen, Kakalios’s unique insider’s perspective drove more than 1.5 million hits for the video, which was jointly produced by the Institute of Technology and the News Service Team.

In addition, at the 30th News and Documentary Film Awards on September 21st, Avery author Diana Holtzberg won an Emmy in the Outstanding Arts and Culture Programming category for the HBO documentary film, “The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly Not For Sale,” which reveals the unusual rise and fall of the 1980s artist Chuck Connelly. Holtzberg served as the Executive Producer for Films Transit International. Along with Deirdre Fishel, she is the co-author of the Avery book Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women Over Sixty (out in paperback 11/3), which is based on the critically acclaimed, eponymous documentary.

Congratulations to both Jim and Diana for their remarkable achievement!

Pictured: Diana Holtzberg after accepting the award.
 

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Thomas Pynchon's Gravity’s Rainbow is One of the Six Finalists for “The Best of the National Book Awards for Fiction” 

The National Book Foundation is asking readers to vote for their favorite National Book Award-winning fiction book as part of their “Best of the National Book Awards for Fiction” campaign and Penguin author Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow is among the six titles selected by 140 NBA winners, finalists and judges. Voters can submit their pick by clicking here until October 21st and when you vote, your email address will be entered for a drawing to win two tickets to the 60th National Book Awards on November 18, 2009 and two nights in the Marriott Hotel Downtown. The winner will be announced at the National Book Awards on November 18th.

In addition, Harold Augenbram, the executive director of the National Book Awards will be leading a discussion of Gravity’s Rainbow at the Barnes & Noble on E. 86th Street on November 2nd.
 

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Two PGI Authors Shortlisted for 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction

Two Penguin Group (USA) authors are on the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction shortlist, which was announced this week: Viking/Penguin author J.M. Coetzee for Summertime, which will be published in hardcover in December 2009 by Viking, and Riverhead author Sarah Waters for The Little Stranger, published this Spring. Having previously won in 1999 with Disgrace, and in 1983 with Life & Times of Michael K, South African writer J.M. Coetzee would be the first author to win the Man Booker Prize three times if successful this year. Sarah Waters has been shortlisted twice: for Fingersmith (2002) and The Night Watch (2006). The winner will be announced at a ceremony in London on October 6th.

To read the full press release, click here.

Read the first chapter of The Little Stranger.
 

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Riverhead Author James McBride Named Finalist for 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction 

Earlier this week, James McBride, Riverhead author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Color of Water and Miracle at St. Anna, was announced as a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for fiction for his latest novel, Song Yet Sung. A haunting story of a runaway slave and a determined slave-catcher in pre-Civil War Maryland, Song Yet Sung explores the moral choices faced by both blacks and whites and the meaning of freedom.

The Dayton Literary Peace Prize honors writers whose work uses the power of literature to foster peace, social justice, and global understanding. Launched in 2006, it has already established itself as one of the world’s most prestigious literary honors, and is the only literary peace prize awarded in the United States. As an offshoot of the Dayton Peace Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize awards a $10,000 cash prize each year to one fiction and one nonfiction author whose work advances peace as a solution to conflict, and leads readers to a better understanding of other cultures, peoples, religions, and political points of view.

McBride is one of six fiction finalists who will be reviewed by a panel of prominent writers, including Gerald Early, Cullen Murphy, Gordon Lish, and Katherine Vaz. A winner and runner-up in fiction and nonfiction will be announced on September 22nd.

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Five Penguin Group Titles Longlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize 

The longlist for the prestigious Man Booker Prize was announced this week, and on it were five books published by Penguin Group. In addition to Sarah Waters' Little Stranger (Riverhead) and two Viking titles making the list: JM Coetzee’s Summertime (on sale 12/28) and William Trevor’s Love and Summer (on sale 9/21); Ed O’Loughlin’s Not Untrue & Not Unkind (Penguin Ireland) and Colm Toibin's Brooklyn: A Novel, published by Penguin UK, also made the cut.

The Prize, worth £50,000, is awarded to the author of the best full-length novel in the opinion of the judges, and usually guarantees major spikes in sales for the work.

The shortlist will be announced on September 8th, with the winner revealed on October 6th in a ceremony at London's Guildhall.

Read more about William Trevor’s Love and Summer here.

Well, I'm back from my thirteenth Romance Writers of America national convention, and what a fine year it was! As always, I participated in meetings with many of The Knight Agency's clients (my job when not writing about the Spartans), and I also signed my recent NAL "Gods of Midnight" novels, Red Fire and Red Kiss during the Wednesday night literacy signing.  One fun fact: every year when I sign at RWA, I am seated next to Berkley author Angela Knight, who is as lovely as she is talented.  It was fun getting to catch up with her while we signed.  Angela also told me about a terrific Indian restaurant down the street, which proves at RWA it's good to pool your resources.

From my first few moments at the conference, I noticed a distinct difference over previous years: the huge impact of Twitter.  Many a new online friend introduced themselves to me over the course of the five days, and I will say there's such a cool sense of camaraderie to personally meeting someone from your online life.  I had to laugh when I checked my twitter account and a friend said, "That red necklace looks great on you." It was one of those "the phone call is coming from inside the house!" moments, only without the horror flick element!

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Tarcher/Penguin Takes Home One COVR and Seven Gold Nautilus Book Awards

Tarcher/Penguin won one categorical award and was a finalist for four others in the 2009 COVR Book Awards, the New Age industry's premier awards ceremony. In its twelfth consecutive year, The Coalition of Visionary Resources (COVR) selects winners from the best new items in the New Age industry.

The award-winner was Energy Medicine for Women by Donna Eden and the finalists included Dead Lucky by Lincoln Hall, Scalpel and the Soul by Allan Hamilton, Prayers to the Great Creator by Julia Cameron, and The Prosperity Bible, a collection of writings from beloved teachers including Ernest Holmes, Benjamin Franklin, and Napoleon Hill.

In addition, Tarcher/Penguin also won an astounding seven gold categorical awards in the 2009 Nautilus Book Awards (after having received a record-breaking 14 silver awards in the second tier of judging). The Nautilus Book Awards were conceived to recognize and reward world-changing books. The winners and finalists are carefully selected in a three-tier judging process by an experienced team of book reviewers, librarians, authors, editors, bookstore owners, and leaders in the publishing industry.