06
NEWS NEWS / IN BRIEF
NEWS IN BRIEF NEWS Home lands for Hughes, Huerta BY TOM TIVNAN
CANELO PACKS UP AN ABANDONED BOOKSHOP
Digital-only publisher Canelo will launch a new imprint in August, called Abandoned Bookshop, with Friday Project publisher Scott Pack and freelance editor Katherine Stephen. Canelo was founded by former Profile digital publisher Michael Bhaskar, along with Iain Millar and Nick Barreto, formerly of Quercus, in January 2015. Pack pictured, who is currently
associate editor at Unbound, and Stephen will “uncover the best books we have forgotten about, lost sight of, or never even knew existed in the first place”, a spokesperson for the company said, adding: “It will be surprising and wide-ranging, crossing popular with literary, famous names and undiscovered gems, old classics with cutting-edge new works.” Titles already signed to the digital imprint include Rudyard Kipling’s account of his travels in Brazil; a novel by Nobel Prize in Literature winner, Italian author Grazia Deledda; and a quintet of forgotten 1930s crime novels. The imprint will also work with translators on a range of classics from around the world that have never appeared in English before.
SHOULD YOU SIGN ME?
Hodder & Stoughton has acquired two books by Marianne Kavanagh pictured, a journalist and author whose
previous novels were published by Australia’s Text Publishing. Senior editor Ruth Tross acquired British and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Veronique Baxter at David Higham Associates, and will publish in hardback in spring 2017. Set on the isolated Isle of Purbeck in Dorset during the Second World War and the late Victorian age, Should You Ask Me, which starts with the discovery of two corpses, is “sweeping, tragic yet uplifting, and completely compelling”, Tross said.
The Pigeonhole founder Anna Jean Hughes and agent Valeria Huerta are collaborating on a digital-first book of essays based around the concept of home. Huerta and Hughes were both on The Bookseller’s 2015 Rising Stars list—the magazine’s annual feature on the up and coming stars in the British book trade. The two met and initiated the project at a Rising Stars event at last year’s Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF). Part of the reason for the genesis of Home, the pair
said, was the recent spotlight on the many people now lacking homes owing to the refugee crisis: “Globally, one in every 122 humans is now either a refugee, internally displaced or seeking asylum. Half the world’s refugees are children . . . We are currently witnessing the highest level of global displacement ever recorded.” Hughes and Huerta have signed up philosopher and social scientist Niki Barbery Bleyleben, whose work focuses on the problems of migration, to work on the project. The eight essays that comprise the book will be serialised on The Pigeonhole—the digital reading platform/social media site Hughes and Jacob Cockcroft
13.04.16
www.thebookseller.com
Huerta
Hughes
co-founded in 2013—along with complementary photos, artwork, poetry and short films. Huerta said: “We have great people [who are] keen and excited about the project and we are in the process of commissioning, but we prefer not to reveal any names of the writers for now.” Huerta will be handling world rights for the book, and said she and Hughes would seek UK and worldwide publishers for a print edition. They also hope to develop the project into an ongoing series. The book will be launched on 19th October at
FBF, and a quarter of all proceeds will be donated to humanitarian charity Caritas.
BOXTREE UNVEILS 30TH B’DAY PLANS
Pan Macmillan’s humour and pop culture imprint Boxtree has announced a series of 30th anniversary plans that “seek to underline the business of serious fun”. In addition to the launch of a new website,
Boxtree.co.uk, the imprint will launch a number of initiatives to help present and future creatives who make their books. The measures include a number of £250 “micro-sponsorships” to help young performers with the cost of taking their shows to the Edinburgh Fringe, and a partnership with Hiive, a professional network for creatives. On Pan Mac’s stand at yesterday’s fair, Boxtree had a “cartoonist-in-residence” in Eddie Ward—one half of the team behind the upcoming Odd Trumps: Pop Culture Gone Weird—sketch caricatures of the book trade’s great and good . . . and Boxtree’s own commissioning editor, Jamie Coleman pictured.
US, China shine at LBF International Excellence Awards
Companies from the US and China led the pack at the London Book Fair’s International Excellence Awards, with both countries claiming two prizes at last night’s (12th April) ceremony. In total, 11 countries shared the evening’s 19 awards. For the US, Words without Borders—a magazine and book publisher that promotes international writing— took home the Publishers Weekly Literary Translation Initiative Award, while New York-based Barbara J Zitwer Agency won the Global Rights 365 Literary Agent gong. Chinese publishers took home the Children’s and Young Adult Trade Publisher Award (Jieli Publishing House) and the Market Focus Achievement Award, accepted by China National Publications Import & Export. The coveted The Bookseller Adult Trade Publisher
Award was won by French publisher Actes Sud, which was commended by the judges for its “depth and breadth of publishing, second-to-none design and production values, and groundbreaking list”. Two awards were given to titans of the UK book trade: PRH chair Dame Gail Rebuck was awarded the LBF Lifetime Achievement Award; while Souvenir Press founder Ernest Hecht was given the LBF Simon Master Chairman’s Award, just days after the indie publisher’s 65th anniversary. LBF director Jacks Thomas said: “We were
delighted to see winners from countries as far afield as Sudan, France, Poland, New Zealand and Brazil— meeting and celebrating these publishers’ hard work, dedication and talent is a fundamental part of LBF.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32