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

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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PEN: China Has Failed to Deliver Freedom of Expression

Jul 09 2008: Three international PEN centers have determined that the climate for freedom of expression in China has measurably deteriorated over the past year. Centers in the U.S., Canada and China released a "report card" one month before the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games, ...

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Death: Thomas M. Disch

Jul 08 2008: SF author, critic, and poet Thomas M. Disch, born 1940, died July 4, 2008, of suicide in his New York City apartment. Ellen Datlow reports that Disch had been depressed for several years, especially by the death of long-time partner Charles Naylor, and worries of ...

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Jhumpa Lahiri jumps the shortlist to world's richest short story prize

Jul 08 2008: The judges for the Frank O'Connor award have dispensed with the ritual of issuing a shortlist, announcing today that Jhumpa Lahiri has won the world's richest honour for a short story collection. The jurors decided that Unaccustomed Earth was so plainly the best book ...

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