Breaking news on authors, publishers, and book-related topics

Kay Ryan named new US poet laureate

Jul 18 2008: Known for her sly, compact poems that revel in wordplay and internal rhymes, Kay Ryan has been named the 16th poet laureate of the U.S.

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Publishing News to cease publication

Jul 15 2008: Publishing News, one of Britain's leading book trade publications, is to cease publication with effect July 25. Founded in 1979, the magazine has been hit by the same problems that have affected all magazines and newspapers, as advertisers have shifted increasing ...

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A Baghdad bookseller, bound to his country

Jul 14 2008: Violence has driven many of the well educated middle-classes out of Iraq, but there are some that have stayed behind, such as Nabil al-Hayawi, whose Renaissance bookshop has just reopened, having risen from the ashes a year after a car bomb killed Hayawi's son and ...

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Bookshop's new sideline - the Obama Countdown clock

Jul 14 2008: Bookshop Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, California have sold nearly 64,000 George Bush Countdown Clocks in the past two years. Now they've introduced a new clock - the Countdown to President Obama Hope Clock. The clock retails at $9.95 with 10% of the purchase priced going ...

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CWA Awards

Jul 13 2008: The prestigious Crime Writers' Association awards, known as the Daggers, have been announced. Winners include

• Frances Fyfield - Blood From Stone - Sphere (Little, Brown)
• Dominique Manotti - Lorraine Connection - EuroCrime (Arcadia Books)
• Tom Rob Smith - Child 44 -...

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Obama on reading

Jul 11 2008: The blogger behind motherreader.com reports on attending a town meeting at which Obama spoke and on one particular question of interest to book lovers:

"A woman asked what Obama would say to young writers. He was surprised by the question, which he admitted was ...

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Rushdie's 'Midnight's Children' wins Best of the Booker Award

Jul 11 2008: Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children has won the Best of the Booker Award through an online public vote that draw about 7,800 responses. The Award marks the 40th anniversary of the Bookers. Fifteen years ago, Midnight's Children won the Booker of Bookers, awarded to ...

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Backlash to Frank O'Connor Award dispensing with shortlist

Jul 09 2008: Guardian blogger Nicholas Lezard, and a number of readers, react caustically to the announcement that Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth has won the Frank O'Connor award outright because the judges chose to dispense with a shortlist (see yesterday's story).

Lezard ...

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