Interweave, which has specialized in crafts magazines and books, has acquired four art magazine from Nielsen Business Media and will follow the same model of publishing books by editors of its magazines. The magazines are American Artist, Drawing, Watercolor and Workshop. With the purchase, Interweave, Loveland, Colo., has reorganized the bead, gem and jewelry division into the art and jewelry division. The division is headed by David Pyle, v-p and publisher, who joined Interweave in April after serving as group publisher of the Artist's Magazine at F+W Publications. Interweave already owns Fiberarts and Jewelry Artist, magazines for fiber and jewelry artists.
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The cover of this week's New Yorker depicts something IndieBound hopes to make, well, less likely a subject for magazine covers: as a UPS man delivers an Amazon.com package to a woman on her front step, she and a man opening up a bookstore next door exchange glances.
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Ex-Cahns in the news: on the Jacket Copy blog of the Los Angeles Times, former Publishers Weekly editor Bridget Kinsella was photographed after the editors' buzz panel at BEA. In her post-PW life, she is working on a newsletter that will be unveiled soon. Many thanks to former PW editor-in-chief Nora Rawlinson, who spotted Bridget in the photo and has her own new website, earlyword.com--more about it soon! (This item written by former PW editor John Mutter.)
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Concerning the query yesterday about the pronunciation of Andre Dubus III's last name, our own Marilyn Dahl pointed out a website that tells how to say the names of hundreds of public figures, including many writers: http://www.loc.gov/nls/other/sayhow.html.
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Tonight the New York Center for Independent Publishing launches the third series of Emerging Voices, highlighting some of New York's smaller, innovative presses and their authors. This evening's focus is Bellevue Literary Press, which began as a magazine in 2000 with offices on the Sixth Floor of Bellevue Hospital. Three years ago, the press expanded into books, and aims "to use illness and the human body as a lens to look at relationships and humanity itself."
Upcoming sessions focus on Europa Editions (June 12), Hanging Loose Press (June 18) and McPherson and Company (June 24). All take place at the Center at the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, 20 W. 44th St., between 5th and 6th Avenues in midtown Manhattan. All events are free. Go to nycip.org for more information.
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At last week's Hay Festival, a controversy erupted over plans to add
recommended age ranges to the covers of children's books, "with authors
speaking both for and against proposals due to be implemented by a wide
group of children's publishers later this year," according to the Guardian.
"If
you've got reluctant young readers," said Mal Peet, "they're going to
be reluctant to read any book which they consider to be beneath their
age range. And there's no point in encouraging able young readers to
read above their age range because they're going to do that anyway. . .
. Sooner or later this age ranging is going to degenerate into a moral
code, which would be terrible."
Rebecca McNally, publishing
director of Macmillan's children's division, countered that "loose
guidelines" were the goal. "We've written to our authors and had a
positive response," she said. "Anyone who's ever seen adults trying to
choose books for children thinks this is a positive thing. The whole
point is to help adults who often feel completely lost in the
children's section of a bookshop."
But author Francesca Simon
suggested that it's "about getting rid of bookshops. It's about selling
books through supermarkets or over the Internet, without the kind of
specialist guidance you can get from a bookseller."
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The Jane Austen Hair Club? The Guardian
reported that a locket "containing what is believed to be Jane Austen's
hair is expected to reach more than £5,000 (US$9,812) at auction."
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Business Week's "Reading List for the Poolside MBA" was compiled from suggestions by university professors. Even a few works of fiction could be found among the "business page-turners."
"Whatever
the merits of the novel, it does a nice job of introducing the concepts
of bottlenecks and variability, both of which are studied in our core
Operations & Management Science course," said Wallace Hopp, the
Herrick professor of manufacturing and professor of operations and
management science at University of Michigan's Stephen M. Ross School
of Business, in justifying his use of The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt and Jeff Cox.
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Last month we reported plans for a Waterstone's charity auction of 13 "storycards" by well-known authors (Shelf Awareness, May 9, 2008). According to the Associated Press (via the New York Times), J.K. Rowling's contribution will be "a short [800-word] prequel to her Harry Potter books."
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David Sedaris, who is about to launch a 30-city book tour promoting When You are Engulfed in Flames, told Newsweek
that he likes being on the road and has found ways to make extra money: "For the last book tour, I put a tip jar on my table,
because you just have to make it fun," he said. "I didn't even do it every night
and I made $4,000."
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Like distant generals, our presidential candidates plot their health care strategies while war rages in the trenches of America's hospitals and clinics. Julie Salamon's Hospital is an urgent, unsentimental dispatch from one of those urban battlefields.