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Penguin Group is the Premier Sponsor of the 2009 PEN World Voices Festival
Penguin Group is the premier sponsor of the 2009 PEN World Voices Festival, which takes place April 27th – May 3rd, 2009 in New York City. The festival is the largest celebration of international literature ever produced in the United States. Each year, the PEN America Center brings more than 100 authors to New York for approximately 70 events all around the city in an effort to promote international literature and to address American cultural insularity.
This year, Penguin Group has twelve authors who are scheduled to participate: Paul Auster, Sebastian Barry, Ian Buruma, Joseph Boyden, Niall Ferguson, Philip Gourevitch, Jessica Hagedorn, A.M. Homes, Marlon James, Walter Mosley, Jeffrey Sachs and Anya Ulinich.
To view the complete schedule of events, most of which are free and open to the public, click here.
Get involved! PEN American Center needs volunteers to work front-of-house, back-of-house, and other functions (hospitality suite, receptions, etc.) at this year’s World Voices Festival. Volunteers are asked to spend one full day (approximately 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.) working multiple events and to be prepared to help out in a variety of ways. If you are interested, please e-mail Nick Burd at nick@pen.org with the day(s) of the festival you are available; complete contact information (e-mail address, postal address, and phone numbers); and any foreign languages you may speak (not a requirement) by next Friday, April 10th. Volunteers are asked to attend an orientation meeting at the PEN offices Tuesday, April 13th; Wednesday, April 14th; or Monday April 20th at 6:30 p.m.
Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Shortlisted for the 2009 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
Junot Díaz has been shortlisted for the 2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which was formally announced by The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Eibhlin Byrne yesterday.
The Award is presented annually with the objective of promoting excellence in world literature. The shortlist was selected from a total of 146 novels nominated by 157 public library systems in 117 cities worldwide. The Award is worth €100,000 and is the world’s most valuable literary prize for a single work of fiction published in English.
A five-member judging panel will select one winner from the short list which will be announced by The Patron of the Award, The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Eibhlin Byrne, on Thursday, June 11th.
Listen to an interview with Junot Díaz and explore The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao reading group guide here.
The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vasquez is Shortlisted for Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vasquez, translated from Spanish by Anne McLean, which Riverhead will publish in July, has been shortlisted for this year’s prestigious Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. The £10,000 prize is given to a living author whose book has been translated into English and published in the UK in the last year. The winning author and translator will share the cash prize. As well as the writer, the award recognizes the importance of the translator in their ability to bridge the gap between languages and cultures.
Boyd Tonkin, literary editor of The Independent and chair of the judges, said: "The judges have a chosen a shortlist that reflects all the diversity and depth of the global fiction that readers in this country can enjoy, and celebrates the artistry of the translators who deliver it to our doorstep."
The winning book will be announced on May 14th at an awards ceremony in central London.
Viking/Penguin Author Ahmed Rashid Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize
Ahmed Rashid, Viking/Penguin author of Descent into Chaos, has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for political writing. The award is the pre-eminent British prize for political writing. There are two annual awards: a Book Prize and a Journalism Prize. They are awarded to the book, and for the journalism, which is judged to have best achieved George Orwell’s aim to "make political writing into an art." The winner will be announced on April 22nd.
Three Penguin Young Readers Group Artists Nominated for 2008 National Cartoonists Society Awards for Best Book Illustration
Three Penguin Young Readers Group illustrators have been nominated to receive the 2008 National Cartoonists Society Award for Best Book Illustration, sweeping the category. The nominees are: Jim Benton for Cherise the Niece (Plume), Stacy Curtis for Raymond and Graham Rule the School (Viking Children’s Books) and Mike Lester Cool Daddy Rat (G.P. Putnam’s Sons). The winners will be announced Memorial Day weekend during the group’s Reuben Awards dinner in Hollywood, CA, on May 23rd.
Berkley Books Partners with IFC and Laurell K. Hamilton to Create Original TV Movie
Berkley Books, the publisher of #1 New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton, has partnered with Hamilton, and IFC (The Independent Film Channel) to create an original television movie based on her Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series of novels. This is the first original made-for-television movie from IFC. The movie is set to air on IFC TV in Summer 2010.
Laurell K. Hamilton’s latest book, Skin Trade: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel will go on sale June 2nd. This is the seventeenth installment in the wildly popular series that began in 1993 with Guilty Pleasures and introduced Hamilton as one of the top authors of modern vampire fiction.
Alpha Books Launches Its First eSpecial for The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to the Financial Crisis
Alpha Books just launched its first eSpecial for The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to the Financial Crisis. This is the first eSpecial of its kind for Penguin because it is being written in installments, as the crisis continues to unfold. Part One in this ongoing series, How We Got Here, is available now exclusively in electronic format. Part One begins with a chapter titled “What the Crisis Means for You Right Now” that offers practical ideas, strategies, and advice that you can use to prepare for and respond to the changing economic environment. Part One also features chapters about the housing bubble, the credit crunch, and the ensuing financial bailouts.
The author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to the Financial Crisis will continue to cover America’s evolving financial and economic turmoil in the coming months, so stay tuned for future installments to the series. This ground breaking format combines timely reporting with deeper analysis and a broader perspective than can be found in the newspaper or on the radio, TV, and Internet. And because it’s a Complete Idiot’s Guide®, the content is explained in an objective, authoritative, and easy-to-understand manner.
Click here to download the eSpecial and peruse more Complete Idiot’s Guide® books on finance.
Greg Mortenson Named Author of the Year by the Mom’s Choice Awards
Three Cups of Tea authors Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Viking/Penguin) have been named Authors of the Year by the Mom’s Choice Awards.
The Mom's Choice Awards® is known for establishing the benchmark of excellence in family-friendly media, products and services. This annual competition recognizes authors, inventors, companies, parents and others for their efforts in creating quality family-friendly media products and services.
For more information about the awards, click here.
Viking/Penguin Author Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love Continues Its Bestselling Journey and She Concludes Her Latest Book Tour Speaking to Over 2,000 Fans at the Washington National Cathedral
#1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love began its ongoing great performance when it was very successfully published to great New York Times-bestselling and critical acclaim in hardcover by Viking in 2006. This strong momentum continued and accelerated when the Penguin trade paperback edition was published by Penguin in 2007. Eat, Pray, Love remains a fixture on The New York Times nonfiction paperback bestseller list, currently #4 after 114 weeks.
Gilbert recently completed the tour for her latest book, Stern Men. On the last tour stop, she spoke about Eat, Pray, Love to an audience of over 2,000 people at the Washington National Cathedral. The crowd started to form two hours before the event and fans paid as much as $22 for the ticket. Gilbert did the event for free and the proceeds were donated to the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and the Cathedral College.
In a Washington Post feature story, the writer sums up the event by saying, “When the attendees go home, they will undoubtedly talk about it some more. And they will sow the multiple autographed copies they obtain tonight among their friends, who will talk about it with their friends, who probably already talked about it in their book clubs over wine and olives.”
To read the complete article and view photos of the event, click here.
Putnam's Neil Nyren Nominated for “SpineTingler Award” for "Best Editor" by SpineTingler Magazine
Neil Nyren, Senior Vice President, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of G. P. Putnam's Sons, has been nominated by SpineTingler Magazine to receive a “SpineTingler Award” in the Best Editor category. SpineTingler magazine is an online publication featuring short stories, reviews and interviews, that seeks to promote and enhance the profile of talented emerging writers using the forum of electronic publishing. The polls are now open to the public. To cast your vote, click here.
Riverhead Acquires Debut Novel, The Well and the Mine, Winner of the 2008 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award
Riverhead Books has acquired world rights to the critically acclaimed, award-winning debut novel by Gin Phillips, The Well and the Mine, from Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts. Winner of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award in the fiction category, The Well and the Mine is set in a small Alabama coal-mining town during the Depression and explores the value of community, charity, family, and hope during a time of hardship. In the wake of a mysterious crime witnessed by a nine-year-old-girl, her family is forced to look beyond its own door to see their community in all its complexity, and to learn a fuller definition of compassion.
Riverhead Publisher Geoff Kloske commented, “This is a fabulous book, with a wonderful chorus of narrative voices, subtle textures, and multiple layers that are rarely found in a debut novel. Gin Phillips is an extremely talented emerging writer and The Well and the Mine is a very exciting addition to Riverhead’s award-wining, bestselling list.”
Gin Phillips said, "I’m very personally attached to these characters and to this story. And I’m grateful that, three years ago, Hawthorne took a chance on the book when no one else would. I’m thrilled and honored and still stunned by all the attention the book has received—it’s much more than I hoped for. And now I’m looking forward to working with Riverhead as they help The Well and the Mine connect with an even greater number of readers."
Originally published as a trade paperback by Hawthorne Books in 2008, the new edition of The Well and the Mine will be available in trade paperback from Riverhead beginning April 8th.
Here is some of the enthusiastic praise the author and The Well and the Mine have received: O, The Oprah Magazine called Gin Phillips “a dazzling new novelist,” and praised The Well and the Mine as “a quietly bold debut; full of heart.” A Los Angeles Times reviewer called the book an “astonishing debut novel … Much like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Well and the Mine is about the strange contortions forced on humanity by racism and poverty.”
Kate Jacobs Embarks on Three-Week Tour to Promote Comfort Food in Paperback
Following the phenomenal paperback success of her debut novel, The Friday Night Knitting Club, which has sold over a million copies and spent a full year on The New York Times trade fiction bestseller list, Kate Jacobs embarks on a three week tour to promote Comfort Food (Berkley Trade Paperback, 4/7) next week. Comfort Food is an engaging story of friends, family, and foodies.
In every city - from Philadelphia to Charlotte, Dallas to Albuquerque - bakeries and knitting stores are co-sponsoring Kate's bookstore signings, with free cupcakes, raffles and knit nights.
National radio highlights include interviews on "Book Radio" (Sirius) and "Daybreak USA" (USA Radio Network), as well as major local radio: "The Joey Reynolds Show" (WOR-FM, NYC), "A Chef's Table" (WHYY-FM, Philadelphia) and "Cincinnati Edition" (Cincinnati Public Radio). Scheduled television appearances include: "More At Midday" (WSMV-TV, Nashville), "The Ten Show" (WCAU-TV, Philadelphia) and "Today in St. Louis" (KSDK-TV, St. Louis).
Book bloggers can't get enough of Comfort Food, with features running on RealSimple.com and ReadingGroupGuides.com, among others. And Jacobs proves that the newspaper is still alive and well, with interviews in: The Charlotte Observer, The Albuquerque Journal, The Bergen Record and Cin Weekly, as well as reviews in The Vail Daily and more.
DK’s WWE Encyclopedia Spends Two Consecutive Weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List
WWE Encyclopedia has staying power, holding strong at #10 on The New York Times advice, how-two and miscellaneous list for the week of April 12th. And, the biggest moment in professional wrestling is still to come, as WWE celebrates WrestleMania’s 25th anniversary in Houston, TX on Sunday, April 5th. In addition, DK has an event with The Million Dollar Man and Ted DiBiase Jr. at the Houston Books-A-million on April 4th.
Former Signet Classics Essay Contest Awardee Thanks Penguin
Liz Carlisle, a 2001 recipient of the Signet Classics Student Scholarship for her essay on Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, recently emailed Academic Marketing to express her appreciation.
Carlisle writes, “Although that is 8 years ago already, I wanted to let you know I have never forgotten, and I remain tremendously grateful for your support. The support from Penguin helped to make possible not only a wonderful Harvard experience, but the many other doors that have opened as a direct result of that college degree.”
The Signet Classics Student Scholarship Essay Contest, now in its thirteenth year, gives five high school juniors or seniors a $1,000 scholarship award to be used toward their higher education plus a Signet Classics library for their school.
The Harvard graduate, who has been admitted to the Ph.D. program in Geography at University of California-Berkeley, mentions that she still has a copy of The Red Badge of Courage and her high school library still has the full Signet Classics series that was part of the award.
New on the Penguin Website
Nine more titles are available in our Penguin Personalized program. Insert personal dedications directly into any of ten Penguin Classics. See which titles are available now.
On this week’s Penguin Podcast, Walter Mosley discusses The Long Fall, his new mystery series set in New York, and the story behind accidental detective Leonid McGill.
Next week, Bryan Burrough will discuss The Big Rich, which chronicles the history of the big Texas oil families.
Three women writers share personal stories and literary influences this week on the Penguin Blog.
- Blood Kin author Ceridwen Dovey.
- What to Read When author Pam Allyn.
- The Lost Hours author Karen White.
The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of April 12th
For the week of April 12th, Pursuit by Karen Robards (Putnam) debuts at #8, while The Long Fall by Walter Mosley (Riverhead) hits at #12, both on the hardcover fiction list.
Here are more New York Times bestseller highlights:
Putnam continues to dominate the hardcover fiction list, occupying five slots again this week: in addition to the Robards debut, Corsair by Clive Cussler is #6 in its third week; Promises in Death by J.D. Robb is #13 in its fifth week; Night and Day by Robert B. Parker is #14 in its fifth week; and Dead Silence by Randy Wayne White is #15 in its third week.
On the trade paperback fiction list, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #7 in its eighteenth week; People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin) is #10 in its thirteenth week; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (Riverhead) is #11 in its 30th week; The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs (Berkley) is #16 in its 53rd week; and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #19 in its 206th week.
On the mass market fiction list, Hold Tight by Harlan Coben (Signet) is #5 in its fourth week; Plague Ship by Clive Cussler (Berkley) is #8 in its fifth week; Danger in a Red Dress by Christina Dodd (Signet) is #16 in its fourth week; and Small Favor by Jim Butcher (Roc) is #19, also in its fourth week.
On the paperback nonfiction list, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) holds the #1 slot in its 113th week; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) is #4 in its 114th week; The Soloist by Steve Lopez (Berkley) is #11 in its third week; The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin) is #15 in its 80th week; and A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink (Riverhead) is #19 in its 28th week.
WWE Encyclopedia by Brian Shields and Kevin Sullivan (DK) is #10 on the hardcover advice, how-to and miscellaneous list in its second week.
In the young readers sector, on the children's picture books list, Listen to the Wind by Greg Mortenson and Susan L. Roth (Dial) is #1 in its tenth week; The Very Hungry Caterpillar written and illustrated by Eric Carle (Philomel) is #4 in its second week; and Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy by David Soman and Jacky Davis (Dial) is #8 in its fourth week. On the children's chapter books list, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (Razorbill) is #5 in its 23rd week and Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (Viking) is #7 in its second week. On the children's paperback books list, Three Cups of Tea: Young Readers Edition by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Puffin) is #4 in its tenth week and Slam by Nick Hornby (Riverhead) is #10 in its 22nd week.
New This Week
The Means of Reproduction by Michelle Goldberg (The Penguin Press, on sale now)
After eight years of a conservative Republican White House, the country, buoyed by a sense of hope and change, elected a Democrat, and its first African-American, to be leader of the free world. Fifty-one percent of that world is female, and in a work of incisive cultural analysis and deep reporting, writer Michelle Goldberg makes the argument that the bedrock of many of the world’s most pressing issues – national security, population control, poverty, human rights, religious conflict – can be tied to the question of who controls a woman’s body.
The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World shows as no book has done before that the emancipation of women has become the key human rights struggle of the 21st century. Offering a new interpretation of the idea that “the world is flat,” she examines the backlash against modernization and globalization that is occurring around the world, leading to threats against both women and their societies more broadly.
Just as Goldberg brilliantly chronicled the impact of the rise of the Christian Right in her bestselling Kingdom Coming, The Means of Reproduction vividly makes clear that the American culture wars and spreading religious fundamentalism are increasingly influencing women's lives all around the world. This time, however, women across the globe, strengthened by a solidarity that transcends borders, are fighting back. Goldberg has written an essential call-to-arms to all of us concerned with the future of the planet.
An interview with Michelle Goldberg aired on “Fresh Air” yesterday, and be sure to pick up the current issue of the The Nation (April 13) for an full page interview with the author.
God is Back by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge (The Penguin Press, on sale now)
Faith is at the heart of the world’s worst flashpoints, including India-Pakistan and Israel-Palestine. From Russia to Turkey to India, nations that previously swore off faith—or even tried to stamp it out—are now run by avowedly religious leaders. From Nigeria to the Philippines, American-backed evangelical Christianity battles with Saudi-supported radical Islam. On the street, and in the corridors of power, religion is surging worldwide, proving that everything the intelligentsia thought they knew about progress was wrong. In God Is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith Is Changing the World, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge shine a bright light on this vast, hidden world of faith, and the religious surge sweeping the globe.
God Is Back explores the dramatic and far-reaching impact this global rise of faith will have on our century, the destabilizing effects of which can already be seen far beyond Iraq, or the site of the World Trade Center. As the Economist’s most seasoned experts on U.S. affairs, Micklethwait and Wooldridge are uniquely qualified to show us how the same American ideas that created our distinctive religious style can be applied around the globe to channel the rising tide of faith away from further volatility and violence.
John and Adrian will discuss God Is Back on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” BBC World News America, Fox & Friends, and CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS.” We’ve already seen early reviews in The New York Times, Financial Times, and Vanity Fair, with reviews to follow in the New York Times Book Review, Slate, and more to come.
New Next Week
Vis & Ramin by Fakhraddin Giorgani (Penguin Classics, 4/7)
Vis & Ramin is the story of forbidden and dangerous love. Vis, the daughter of queen Shahru, was promised to Viru, King Mobad of Mary, before she was born and when she is of age, she marries him. When fighting breaks loose in his kingdom, King Mobad demands his bride be brought to him. Mobad’s younger brother, Ramin, volunteers to take Vis and escort her to her new husband, but during this trip, he begins to fall in love with her, and she him. The origins of Vis and Ramin are ambiguous, but the tale is most likely the inspiration for Tristan and Iseult, which was written a century later.
Miss Julia Paints the Town by Ann B. Ross (Penguin, 4/7)
Hitting stands next week is the paperback edition of Miss Julia Paints the Town, the latest Miss Julia adventure by Ann B. Ross. Set to coincide with Viking’s new hardcover, Miss Julia Delivers the Goods, Ann and her Miss Julia are fast becoming Southern Classics. Ann will be hitting the road in April for a 10 city book tour through the Carolinas, Alabama, and Tennessee. For more information, and to watch a fantastic video about Ann, her life in North Carolina and how it inspires her writing, please visit her author page.
