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Accused by at least 10 women of sexual harassment, author Sherman Alexie has decided not to accept the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction that he won for You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir (Little, Brown), NPR reported. Winners of the Carnegie Medals, a joint initiative of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the American Library Association, were announced at the ALA's midwinter meeting in Denver last month. The medal and its $5,000 award would have been officially presented during ALA's annual conference in New Orleans in June.

The ALA said on Friday that "we acknowledge" Alexie's decision and will not give a Carnegie Medal for Excellence in the nonfiction category this year. The two other finalists for the Carnegie Medal in nonfiction were The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner by Daniel Ellsberg (Bloomsbury) and Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann (Doubleday). The winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction was Jennifer Egan for Manhattan Beach (Scribner).

The ALA added that it "believes that every person has the right to a safe environment free from sexual harassment." It also promised to support "members, their colleagues, and their community members" in addressing sexual harassment issues by providing resources and referral services on its website.

Alexie has also asked his publisher to postpone the publication of the paperback edition of You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, which had been scheduled to appear from Back Bay Books April 24. A Hachette Book Group spokesperson confirmed the postponement and said the publisher is keeping his other books in print, adding, "We were surprised and troubled to hear the allegations that have recently emerged, and are concerned about the distress this situation has caused so many. We're encouraged that Sherman Alexie has apologized to those he has hurt and has dedicated himself, as he's said, to becoming 'a healthier man who makes healthier decisions.' "

Off the Beaten Path bookstore, Lakewood, N.Y., has new owners, the Post-Journal reported. Judy and Katie Gustafson have sold the store to Bob Lingle, who has seven years of experience working in and managing bookstores. Lingle and his wife, Shannon, who teaches at a local high school, and their children moved to the area in 2016 from Buffalo.

"This is the ideal bookstore, and it's exactly what I've always wanted," Lingle told the paper. In January, "I saw the post [that the store was for sale], met with Judy the following day and found what she was asking to be extremely reasonable. So I spent the rest of that weekend putting together a business plan, and walked into the bank the following Monday to get the ball rolling."

Off the Beaten Path carries new and used books, Melissa and Doug toys, gifts and journals.

As for changes, Lingle said he plans to hold a monthly children's storytime event--as did original owner Holly Richardson--and start a monthly newsletter.

This coming Saturday, March 17, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., the store is hosting a "meet the new owners" event that will include cookies, a 10% discount on everything in the store and five chances to win $10 gift cards.

After nine years in business, River House Books at the Crossroads shopping center in Carmel, Calif., has been put up for sale, but will close March 31 if an interested buyer isn't lined up by then, the Monterey Herald reported.

Gordon Simonds, owner of the bookstore with his wife, Diane, said, "I closed my long-standing law practice at the end of December 2017 and the next logical step was to allow both of us to truly become free of responsibilities." He added that the decision coincided with the upcoming expiration of their lease. "We have children and grandchildren spread around the country--we'd like to see them and like to have time simply for ourselves."

Noting that bookstores are essential, Simonds observed: "I can't think of any other place where you can go in and have in front of you a whole array of different subject matter on the humanities and sciences."

He credited Diane as "the guiding spirit" of the business while he worked behind the scenes: "She personally orders every book that comes into the store. In the nine years we've been in Carmel we've developed a wonderful customer base. There are so many visitors and locals who come in and tell the staff of five all the time that this is one of the best bookstores they've ever been in."

The demographics on the Monterey Peninsula are favorable for a good bookstore, he added. "There are a lot of people who are mature, who grew up reading real books that they could read, touch and smell. You have a (demographic) that loves the hand-held book. We had a product that appealed to them and they were ever so enthusiastic about what they found in the store.... The best purchaser would be somebody who already owns a bookstore or owns a chain of bookstores."

On Facebook, the co-owners posted: "To our customers, thank you for informing, inspiring and supporting us. To our past and current staff in St. Helena and Carmel, thank you for being curious, intrepid and committed to customer service. To our vendors thank you for your essential services. To Jean Phillips and Ren Harris thank you for our exquisite space in St. Helena. To the Crossroads Carmel thank you for an inviting, serene and safe place in which to thrive."

For more information, contact River House Books at 831-626-2623.

Amazon has informed third-party sellers that it will soon start collecting sales tax on shipments to Pennsylvania, CNBC reported. It cited an announcement in the company's seller portal, which is  available only to marketplace merchants, that beginning April 1, "Amazon will calculate, collect, and remit sales tax for orders shipped to customers" in the state. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the policy.

Pennsylvania joins Washington as the two states that are currently part of a new service called "Marketplace Tax Collection." CNBC noted that lawmakers in Pennsylvania passed a bill last year requiring Internet retailers to charge and collect sales tax, leveling the playing field for physical stores. The new law "requires sales tax collection regardless of whether the merchant has a physical operation in the state, so if a small clothing business in Atlanta sends a dress to Philadelphia, it now has to charge and collect the 6% sales tax. To date, Amazon has collected tax on items that it sells but has left it to third-party merchants on the platform to handle their own tax collection where applicable."

The three Editors' Buzz Panels at BookExpo will focus on the following upcoming titles:

Adult Editors' Buzz Panel (Wednesday, May 30, at 1:45 p.m.):
Maid by Stephanie Land (Hachette, December 26)
Ohio by Stephen Markley (Simon & Schuster, pub date: August 21)
She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore (Graywolf Press, September 11)
Small Animals by Kim Brooks (Flatiron Books, August 21)
The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World by Sarah Weinman (Ecco, September 11)
There Will Be No Miracles Here by Casey Gerald (Riverhead, October 2)

Young Adult Editors' Buzz Panel (Thursday, May 31, at 10 a.m.):
Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram (Dial, September 4)
The Girl King by Mimi Yu (Bloomsbury, October 2)
Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan (JIMMY Patterson, October 23)
Sadie by Courtney Summers (Wednesday Books, September 11)
The Similars by Rebecca Hanover (Sourcebooks Fire, January 8, 2019)

Middle Grade Editors' Buzz Panel (Friday, June 1, at 11 a.m.):
Everlasting Nora by Marie Cruz (Starscape/Tor, October 2)
I'm Ok by Patti Kim (Atheneum, October 9)
Monstrous Devices by Damien Love (Viking, November 13)
Sanity & Tallulah, Book 1 by Molly Brooks (Disney-Hyperion, October 23)
Short and Skinny by Mark Tatulli (Little, Brown, September 11)

Chessy Prout and her co-author Jenn Abel were at Politics & Prose at the Wharf, Washington, D.C., to promote Prout's memoir, I Have the Right To: A High School Survivor's Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope (Margaret K. McElderry Books). Pictured: Abelson, Prout and Margaret Orto of Politics & Prose.

"Independent bookstores in Dallas have always been the backbone of the literary movement in the city, helping #LiteraryDallas to flourish in beautiful ways," the Culture Trip wrote in showcasing its picks for the best indie booksellers in the city. "These amazing independent bookstores offer lovers of the written word a place to connect and read, all while supporting the entrepreneurial spirit that makes Dallas unique."

Believe it or not, spring is in the air... and the window display at Burke's Book Store, Memphis, Tenn., which shared a photo of its new spring window, with the theme "Reading Is Always in Fashion."

At Grand Central Publishing:

Amanda Pritzker has been promoted to director of marketing and campaign strategy.

Andrew Duncan has been promoted to director of digital marketing and content strategy.

Joe Benincase has been promoted to digital marketing and analytics manager.

Tiffany Sanchez has been promoted to associate marketing manager.

Caitlin Mulrooney-Lyski has been promoted to deputy director of publicity.

Jordan Rubinstein has been promoted to associate publicist.

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At Chronicle Books:

Miriam Keil has been promoted to sales manager, special markets. Previously she was associate sales manager.

Sam Steele has been promoted to sales manager, special markets. Previously she was associate sales manager.

Morgan Amer has been promoted to associate sales manager, special markets. Previously she was assistant sales manager.

A Note of Explanation by Vita Sackville-West (Chronicle Books) is the miniature book that the author wrote in the 1920s to be included with other miniature books in Queen Mary's Dolls' House, on display in Windsor Castle. This edition is cloth-bound with illustrations by Kate Baylay and an afterword by Matthew Dennison, author of Behind the Mask: The Life of Vita Sackville-West.

Today:
Fresh Air: Rania Abouzeid, author of No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria (Norton, $26.95, 9780393609493).

Daily Show: Junot Díaz, author of Islandborn (Dial Books, $17.99, 9780735229860).

Tomorrow:
Conan: Robert B. Reich, author of The Common Good (Knopf, $22.95, 9780525520498).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Jimmy O. Yang, author of How to American: An Immigrant's Guide to Disappointing Your Parents (Da Capo, $27, 9780306903496).

Late Late Show with James Corden: Patton Oswalt discusses I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by his late wife, Michelle McNamara (Harper, $27.99, 9780062319784).

The Opposition with Jordan Klepper: Thomas M. Nichols, author of The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters (Oxford University Press, $24.95, 9780190469412).

Díaz-Balart (l.) and Ramos at Books & Books

Books & Books, Coral Gables, Fla., was the setting for an unusual meeting of the two main anchors of the top Hispanic TV networks in the U.S.: in conversation were José Díaz-Balart of Noticias Telemundo and Jorge Ramos of Univisión Noticias, who is also the author of a new book, Stranger: The Challenge of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era (Vintage). The conversation airs tonight at 6:30 p.m. on Telemundo.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that the two discussed the Trump presidency, the Latino community's future, journalism and activism.

"This Noticias Telemundo initiative strengthens our shared commitment to the Latino community at a time when journalism has become of vital importance for us," Díaz-Balart said.

Ramos added: "This is the first time we are doing this. We've owed it to each other for the last 30 years."

AMC has released photos and teaser clips for its new TV series Dietland, based on Sarai Walker's novel. A two-hour premiere airs June 4 at 9 p.m. The series stars Joy Nash and Julianna Margulies.

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Christopher Abbott (Girls, The Sinner) will play the lead role (Capt. John Yossarian) in the adaptation of Joseph Heller's classic novel Catch-22, Variety reported. The six-part limited Hulu series co-stars George Clooney (Col. Cathcart), who is also serving as executive producer and co-director. Clooney's Smokehouse Pictures producing partner, Grant Heslov, will direct a portion of the series in addition to executive producing.

All six episodes were co-written by Luke Davies and David Michôd. The series will be produced by Paramount Television and Anonymous Content. Deadline noted that the series "will mark Clooney's first regular television role since he broke out on the medical drama E.R. in the early 1990s."

The finalists for the 30th annual Publishing Triangle Awards, honoring the best LGBTQ fiction, nonfiction and poetry published in 2017, as well as the year's best trans and gender-variant literature, have been announced and may be seen here. Winners will be celebrated April 26 at a ceremony in New York City.

In addition, Sarah Schulman has won the 2018 Publishing Triangle's Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement. She is a novelist, nonfiction writer, playwright, screenwriter and AIDS historian. Among her novels are The Cosmopolitans, The Child and Rat Bohemia (winner of the 1996 Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction). Her nonfiction includes Conflict Is Not Abuse (winner of last year's Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction), The Gentrification of the Mind and Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences. Schulman's 19th book, the novel Maggie Terry, will be published in September by the Feminist Press.

She is on the advisory boards of Jewish Voice for Peace, Research on the Israeli/American Alliance and Claudia Rankine's Racial Imaginary Institute, and she is faculty advisor for Students for Justice in Palestine. She has also won a Guggenheim in playwriting, a Fulbright in Judaic studies and two American Library Association Stonewall Awards. A fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University, she is distinguished professor of the humanities at CUNY/College of Staten Island. She also teaches in such non-degree community-based programs as Queer Art Mentorship and Lambda Emerging Writers Retreat.

Sarah Perry has won the second Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award, which honors an LGBTQ writer who has published at least one book but not more than two. Her memoir, After the Eclipse: A Mother's Murder, a Daughter's Search, was published in 2017 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. She holds an M.F.A. in nonfiction from Columbia University, where she served as publisher of Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art and was a member of the journal's nonfiction editorial board. She is the recipient of a writers' fellowship from the Edward F. Albee Foundation and a Javits fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education. Perry has attended residencies at Norton Island in Maine and PLAYA in Oregon. Her prose has appeared in such publications as Blood & Thunder, Elle.com, and the Guardian.

Malaga Baldi has won the Publishing Triangle's Leadership Award. She worked in a bookstore, at a publishing house and for two agencies before founding her own literary agency in 1986, the Baldi Agency, which has specialized in literary fiction, memoir and cultural history. She is known for her tireless advocacy for her clients and their books. Among the Baldi Agency's authors are Kate Bornstein, Blanche McCrary Boyd, Barbara Carrellas, Raymond Coppinger, Patty Dann, Glenn Kurtz, William Mann, Martin Moran and Rick Whitaker. A first novel she agented--Jazz Moon by Joe Okonkwo--won the Publishing Triangle's Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction last year. Baldi was a founding member of the Publishing Triangle and served on its initial board of directors.

LibraryReads, the nationwide library staff-picks list, offers the top 10 April titles public library staff across the country love:

Favorite
Circe by Madeline Miller (Little, Brown, $27, 9780316556347). "Circe follows the banished witch daughter of the Titans as she practices her powers for an inevitable conflict with one of Olympus's most vindictive gods. I found myself pondering motherhood, mortality, and feminism. For readers of historical and mythological drama or anyone who loves a strong female lead." --McKelle George, Salt Lake City Public Library, Salt Lake City, Utah

Other People's Houses by Abbi Waxman (Berkley, $16, 9780399587924). "The story follows a stay-at-home mom. There is a satisfying rhythm to the book. Crazy things happen, and the next day the kids have to get to school and soccer practice. The shifting point of view, from the mother to various people living in the town is successful in imparting a snarky tone, bringing to life the gossipy small town setting." --Claire Sherman, Clearwater Countryside Library, Clearwater, Fla.

All the Beautiful Lies: A Novel by Peter Swanson (Morrow, $26.99, 9780062427052). "The latest from psychological thriller master Swanson is a whirlpool of darkness, taboos, and secrets. When his father commits suicide, Harry Ackerson returns home to Maine. Harry finds more questions than answers as he faces his attractive young stepmother, the attentions of a seductive stranger, and the many questions posed by the local investigators." --Sharon Layburn, South Huntington Public Library, Huntington Station, N.Y.

How to Be Safe: A Novel by Tom McAllister (Liveright, $24.99, 9781631494130). "This novel uses fiction as a tool to show how guns and violence are affecting contemporary society. Anna's fictional experiences illustrate the real-life hypocrisy, lack of leadership, and fear of expressing controversial opinions. Great fiction for readers who tend to stay in the nonfiction lane." --Marilyn Sieb, L.D. Fargo Public Library, Lake Mills, Wis.

Then She Was Gone: A Novel by Lisa Jewell (Atria, $26, 9781501154645). "Part psychological fiction, part ghost story, both tragic and uplifting. A decade after the disappearance of her teenage daughter, Laurel Mack meets a charming single father with two daughters, the youngest of whom reminds Laurel deeply of her lost daughter Elle, and she becomes obsessed with her unanswered questions." --Linda Quinn, Fairfield Public Library, Fairfield, Conn.

Unbury Carol: A Novel by Josh Malerman (Del Rey, $27, 9780399180163). "This horror novel, set in the Old West, is creepy, atmospheric, and suspenseful. A husband has nefarious plans for his comatose wife Carol. James Moxie, a legendary outlaw, sets off on The Trail to save her. Hot on James' tail is a sinister hit man with a thirst for murder-by-fire and a supernatural entity, Rot, who wants to collect Carol." --Sonia Reppe, Stickney-Forest View Public Library, Stickney, Ill.

The Female Persuasion: A Novel by Meg Wolitzer (Riverhead, $28, 9781594488405). "A complex coming of age story. A college student finds herself transformed by her experience with a renowned feminist and activist in the center of the women's movement. This is a story of women finding their way and making mistakes in the world of men. This is a novel that makes you feel and think in equal measures." --Chris Markley, Hawkins County Libraries, Rogersville, Tenn.

You Think It, I'll Say It: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House, $27, 9780399592867). "A collection of ten short stories from the author of Eligible. Literary fiction with young adult appeal. Well-developed characters in fascinating circumstances. Poignant, timely, sad, funny, and cohesive. Sittenfeld shows her craft in a new form." --Leanne Milliman, Charlevoix Public Library, Charlevoix, Mich.

My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris (Quirk Books, $14.99, 9781683690139). "A choose-your-own-adventure romance with Jane Austen flair. You are a spirited but penniless heroine in eighteenth-century society and courtship season has begun. Go!" --Victoria Catron, Neva Lomason Memorial Library, Carrollton, Ga.

The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After by Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil (Crown, $26, 9780451495327). "Wamariya has written a heartbreaking account of her survival of the Rwandan genocide. In 1994, she and her sister fled Rwanda and spent the next six years migrating through Africa, looking for a safe haven. Told in alternating chapters, between her harrowing escape and her arrival in the U.S. as a refugee." --Janet Kowal, Connetquot Public Library, Bohemia, N.Y.

Poet and memoirist Tracy K. Smith (Ordinary Light) believes poetry can "help us make sense of the contemporary moment." For Smith, U.S. Poet Laureate, that moment includes her country's historical and present-day acts of injustice against refugees, former slaves, African Americans and the poor. Her fourth collection, Wade in the Water, examines that injustice (political and personal) with sharp insight and telling detail.

Smith moves deftly from the broad theme to the striking personal image: in "New Road Station," for example, "History is in a hurry. It moves like a woman/ Corralling her children onto a crowded bus." "Unrest in Baton Rouge," inspired by the iconic photo of a female protester facing down two armored policemen, asks, "Is it strange to say love is a language/ Few practice, but all, or near all speak?" The poem mentions "jangling handcuffs" and blood that "pools in the pavement's seams," but its enduring image is "Love: naked almost in the everlasting street,/ Skirt lifted by a different kind of breeze."

The book draws in other voices, first through an erasure poem based on text from the Declaration of Independence: "Our repeated/ Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury." The next line, "We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration/ and settlement here," feels particularly poignant in light of national conversations concerning refugees and immigrants. Another erasure poem, "The Greatest Personal Privation," draws from the correspondence of former slave owners: "It is a painful and harassing business/ Belonging to her." A multi-part prose poem, "I Will Tell You the Truth About This, I Will Tell You All About It," comprises letters by African Americans who served in the Civil War and their surviving relatives. These soldiers and their families speak on their own behalf. They tell of tragedies on and off the battlefield, ask for news of loved ones, and beg President Lincoln for financial help and the payment of pensions due.

While Smith repeatedly calls injustice and its perpetrators to account, her poems also contain deep compassion and an insistence on hope. She writes with warmth about her young daughter in "4 1/2" and "Dusk," and recalls fond childhood memories in "Urban Youth": "The hedges thrummed with bees/ That only sang." Family and love can be fraught, too, but Smith is fierce in her cherishing of the good.

"What is the soul allowed to keep?" Smith asks in "Eternity." "Every/ Birth, every small gift, every ache?" Wade in the Water is deeply frank about the ache, but it also quietly celebrates many small--and vital--gifts. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Shelf Talker: U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith's fourth collection contains sober-eyed, insightful poems that call injustice to account but insist on hope.