book
look
Medal for Mailer
November 16. Mailer’s past honors include rare-book preservationist.
winning the National Book Award and two Belanger also founded the Rare Book School,
Pulitzer prizes. Mailer also co-founded the a nonprofit institute devoted to the histories of You ng People’s Literature
Village Voice and served as president of the manuscripts, print and electronic text. The Penderwicks, by Jeanne Birdsall (Alfred A.
Worthy honoree professor and honorar y
The National Book Foundation (NBF) curator of special collec-will award its 2005 Medal for Distinguished tions at the University of
Contributions to American Letters to Virginia. He was awarded a
Norman Mailer at its annual awards ceremony fellowship for his work as a
PEN American Center from 1984 to 1986. Winners of the MacArthur Foundation’s Knopf Books for Young Readers); Where I
The NBF also announced the creation of fellowships, also known as “genius awards,” Want to Be, by Adele Griffin (G.P. Putnam’s
a new award: the Literarian Award for receive annual no-strings-attached checks for Sons); Inexcusable,by Chris Lynch (Ginee Seo
Outstanding Service to the American Literary $100,000 for the next five years. Books/Atheneum); Autobiography of My Dead
Community. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet, Brother, by Walter Dean Myers (Harper-
publisher and bookstore owner, is the first Nominations reach record high Tempest/Amistad); Each Little Bird That Sings,
recipient. The prize is intended to honor con- Publishers outdid themselves in the 2005 by Deborah Wiles (Harcourt) C
tributions to the entire literary community. National Book Award nominations, with an
impressive 1,195 entries. Source: Publishers Weekly
Books for boomers Holtzbrinck tied with Random House for
The Time Warner Book Group is launch- the most nominations, each with four.
ing a new imprint for baby boomers: Holtzbrinck’s Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Springboard Press. The imprint, which imprint received three nominations, Harper-
focuses on how age affects everything from Collins received three and Penguin tied with
health to finances, has already acquired sev- Houghton Mifflin with two each. Simon &
eral titles for first offerings. Their initial list Schuster received just one nomination, and
includes a book on aging by beauty expert Time Warner was the only major house to be
Bobbi Brown, one on fitness by the co-inven- shut out.
tor of spinning and another about entering The list of nominees:
midlife by journalist Katherine Lanpher. Fiction
The March, by E.L. Doctorow (Random
Have books, need delivery House); Veronica, by Mary Gaitskill (Pan-
In the face of the unimaginable damage theon); Trance, by Christopher Sorrentino
in hurricane-stricken areas, the national liter- (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); Holy Skirts, by
acy organization First Book has commit- René Steinke (William Morrow); Europe
ments from publishers for nearly 4 million Central, by William T. Vollmann (Viking)
books to be donated to families, schools and Nonfiction
libraries. What the nonprofit doesn’t have is Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion,
money to get the books out of warehouses by Alan Burdick (Farrar, Straus and Giroux);
and into kids’ hands. It costs approximately Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius, by Leo
50 cents to move one book from a warehouse Damrosch (Houghton Mifflin); The Year of
into a reader’s hands. Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion (Knopf);
With no planned advertising to promote 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to
the book-donation relief efforts, First Book is Survive Inside the Twin Towers, by Jim Dwyer
hoping news about the program will spread and Kevin Flynn (Times Books); Bury the
through word of mouth. Information about Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free
making donations is available at the Web site an Empire’s Slaves, by Adam Hochschild
www.firstbook.org. (Houghton Mifflin)
Poetry
Men of words win MacArthur awards Where Shall I Wander, by John Ashbery (Ecco);
Two men who are steeped in the world of Star Dust: Poems, by Frank Bidart (Farrar, Straus
books were among this year’s group of 25 and Giroux); Habitat: New and Selected Poems,
MacArthur Foundation fellowships. One of 1965-2005, by Brendan Galvin (Louisiana State
the winners is Jonathan Lethem, author of six University Press); Migration: New and Selected
novels, including The Fortress of Solitude, a Poems, by W.S. Merwin (Copper Canyon Press);
Costco Buyer’s Pick. The Moment’s Equation, by Vern Rutsala
The second winner is Terry Belanger, a (Ashland Poetry Press)
signings
Michael Chiarello signs Michael
Chiarello’s Easy Entertaining on
November 1, at 5 p.m., at the Almaden,
California, Costco, at 5301 Almaden
Expressway.
Jimmy Carter signs Our Endangered
Values on November 2, at 6 p.m., at the
Pentagon City, Virginia, Costco, at 1200
S. Fern St.
Richard Reynolds signs Texas Then and
Now on November 6, at noon, at the
Katy Freeway, Texas, Costco, at 1150
Bunker Hill Road.
Barbara Boxer signs A Time to Run
—November 6, at noon, at the Mountain
View, California, Costco, at 1000 N.
Rengstorff.
—November 9, at 7 p.m., at the
Pentagon City, Virginia, Costco, at
1200 S. Fern St.
Iman signs The Beauty of Color on
November 12, at 11 a.m., at the Queens,
New York, Costco, at 32-50 Vernon Blvd.
Christopher Paolini signs Eldest on
November 12, at noon, at the Bozeman,
Montana, Costco, at 2505 Catron St.
(Click here for maps and
directions to Costco locations.)
ARTICLE FEEDBACK
NOVEMBER 2005 The Costco Connection
