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Author John Lanchester has been chosen as the recipient of the E.M. Forster Award, given by the American Academy of Arts & Letters. The prize, worth $20,000, is given to a young writer from the United Kingdom or Ireland for a stay in the United States. His most recent book, Family Romance: A Love Story, was published last year in hardcover by Putnam and the trade paperback edition is currently available from Penguin.

The awards will be presented in New York in May at the Academy's annual Ceremonial. The literature prizes honor both established and emerging writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The Academy's 250 members nominate candidates, and a rotating committee of writers selects the winners.

Monica Seles to Pen Memoir for Avery

Avery has acquired world rights to a new memoir by tennis icon Monica Seles, scheduled to be published in March 2009. In this inspiring and revealing memoir, Seles will explore her remarkable journey of brilliant tennis, fame, tragedy, loss and self-discovery. After years of having every aspect of her training, diet and life dictated and scrutinized by others, Monica took control, deciding what she wanted from life and set out to obtain it. Cutting through the fog of sadness, fear and frustration that made Seles overweight and unhappy, today she looks and feels better than ever and has created a life in balance. Seles is currently part of the cast of the sixth season of ABC-TV's hit show, "Dancing with the Stars."

Penguin Group (USA) Owns 30% of the March BusinessWeek Paperback Business Books Bestseller List

Penguin Group (USA) has five books on the BusinessWeek paperback business books bestseller list for the month of March: The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke by Suze Orman (Riverhead) at #4; It's Called Work for a Reason by Larry Winget (Gotham) at #10; The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing by Jason Kelly (Plume); A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink (Riverhead) at #12; and The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene (Penguin) at #15.

As previously reported in Spotlight, Penguin Group (USA) also currently has three titles on BusinessWeek's hardcover business books bestseller list: You're Broke Because You Want to Be by Larry Winget (Gotham) at #6; The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann (Portfolio) at #9; and Free Lunch by David Cay Johnston (Portfolio) at #11.

Paul Buckley Selected to Win Brit Insurance Design of the Year Award

Viking/Penguin's Creative Director Paul Buckley has been chosen as a winner for the Brit Insurance Designs of the year for the Penguin Classics Deluxe Series, which has taken the prize in the Graphics category. The jury was so enthusiastic about the Penguin Classics Deluxe Series' design and the wonderful art direction that it was named a clear winner.

The awards ceremony was held on March 18th at the Design Museum in London.

Two Books from Penguin Group (USA) Nominated for the 2008 Thriller Awards

Two books from Penguin Group (USA) have been chosen from a pool of over 500 titles as nominees for this year's Thriller Awards, sponsored by the International Thriller Writers organization. The Crime Writer by Gregg Hurwitz (Viking) and Trouble by Jesse Kellerman (Putnam/Jove) are both up for "Best Novel." The winners will be announced at the ThrillerFest Gala Banquet on July 12th in New York City.

Lottery by Patricia Woods Longlisted for Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction

Patricia Wood's Lottery (published by G. P. Putnam's Sons in the U.S.) has been longlisted for The Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, the UK's only annual book award for fiction written by a woman. The prize was set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote fiction by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible and is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman in the English language. The shortlist will be revealed on April 15th, and the winner will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held in The Ballroom at the Royal Festival Hall in London on June 4th.

The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of March 16th

Penguin Group (USA) has four new debuts on The New York Times bestseller list for the week of March 30th: On the mass-market paperback list, Dry Ice by Stephen White (Signet) is #13; Without Fail by Lee Child (Jove) is at #18; and Hunter's Moon by Randy Wayne White (Berkley) is at #19. On the children's chapter books list, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (Razorbill) is #10.

Here are more New York Times bestseller highlights for the week of March 30th:

On the hardcover fiction list, Strangers in Death by J.D. Robb (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is at #9 in its fourth week; A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #10 in its 43rd week; and World Without End by Ken Follett (Dutton) is #12 in its 23rd week.

On the hardcover nonfiction list, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (The Penguin Press) is #4 in its eleventh week; and The Reason For God by Timothy Keller (Dutton) is #7 in its fourth week.

On the trade paperback fiction list, The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs (Berkley) moves up to #4 in its eleventh week; The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (NAL) is #5 in its eighteenth week; The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #6 in its 158th week; and The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin) is at #12 in its 91st week.

On the mass market paperback fiction list, Sacred Stone by Clive Cussler and Craig Dirgo (Berkley) is #5 in its ninth week; High Profile by Robert B. Parker (Berkley) is #7 in its second week; Predatory Game by Christine Feehan (Jove) is at #10 in its third week; Thigh High by Christina Dodd (Signet) is #12 in its second week; Shifter by Alyssa Day, Virginia Kantra, Angela Knight, and Lora Leigh (Berkley) is #14 in its second week; and Tom Clancy's Endwar by David Michaels (Berkley) is #17 in its sixth week.

On the paperback nonfiction list, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) holds in the #1 position in its 60th week; Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) follows right behind at #2 in its 59th week; The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin) is at #13 in its 29th week; Grace (Eventually) is #16 in its third week; A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink (Riverhead) is #18 in its twelfth week; and The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge (Penguin) is at #19 in its second week.

On the advice, how-to, and miscellaneous paperback list, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (Plume) holds at #1 in its seventh week; and Getting Things Done by David Allen (Penguin) holds at #7 in its eighteenth week.

In the young readers sector, Just Listen by Sarah Dessen (Speak) is #4 on the children's paperback list, with Barack Obama by Roberta Edwards, illustrated by Ken Call (Grosset & Dunlap) at #10, also on that same list. The Big Field by Mike Lupica (Philomel) is #3 in its second week on the children's chapter books list; and The Alex Rider Adventures by Anthony Horowitz (Philomel/Speak, hardcover and paperback) is #10 in its 53rd week on the children's series list.

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