2009 Anthony Awards

The winners of the 2009 Anthony Awards are:
Best novel: The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly
Best first novel: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Best paperback original: State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy
Best short story: "A Sleep Not Unlike Death" by Sean Chercover
Best critical nonfiction work: Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography by Jeffrey Marks
Best cover art: The Girl with the Drago Tattoo designed by Peter Mendelsund

Chicago Tribune's Printers Row

The books section of the Tribune has been recreated as Printers' Row. There is an online blog version, Printers' Row, on the Chicago Tribune website. It's great, too, for its listing of local literary events. Twitter fans can find it at ChiTribBooks.

Author Kate Jacobs at Warren Newport Public Library November 7

Kate Jacobs is the author of the bestsellers The Friday Night Knitting Club, Knit Two, and Comfort Food. With more than one million copies in print, and a movie starring and produced by actress (and knitter) Julia Roberts in the works, The Friday Night Knitting Club has become a phenomenon. Now, in her new book Knit The Season, her fans are invited to spend the holidays with the Friday night knitting club at the cozy Walker & Daughter yarn shop on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
Kate Jacobs will be at the Warren Newport Public Library in Gurnee, Illinois on Saturday, November 7 at 2:00pm. Books will be available for purchase and signing.
This is a free program, please call 847/244-5150 (press 7) to register.

2009 Shamus Awards

The Private Eye Writers of America give out Shamus Awards yearly to honor excellent work in books featuring private eyes. And the winners are (series private eye in parentheses):
◊ Best PI Hardcover: Empty Ever After by Reed Farrel Coleman (Moe Prager)
◊ Best First PI Novel: In the Heat by Ian Vasquez (Miles Young)
◊ Best PI Paperback Original: Snow Blind by Lori Armstrong (Julie Collins)
◊ Best Short Story: "Family Values" by Mitch Alderman (Bubba Simms)
◊ Hammer Award for Character Longevity: Lawrence Block (Matthew Scudder)

National Book Award Finalists

The National Book Foundation has named the 2009 National Book Award finalists:
Fiction:
American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
Far North by Marcel Theroux
Nonfiction:
Following the Water by David M. Carroll
Remarkable Creatures by Sean B. Carroll
Fordlandia by Greg Grandin
The Poison King by Adrienne Mayor
The First Tycoon by T. J. Stiles
Poetry
Versed by Rae Armantrout
Or to Begin Again by Ann Lauterbach
Speak Low by Carl Phillips
Open Interval by Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon
Transcendental Studies by Keith Waldrop
The winners will be announced on November 18. Gore Vidal will be honored with the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and David Eggers will receive the Literarian Award for Outstanding Contribution to the American Literary Community.

German Writer Muller Nobel Prize Winner

Herta Muller has won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy described Muller as a writer "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossed." Muller emigrated to Germany in 1987 after years of censorship in her native Romania. She has written 20 books, but only 5 have been translated into English, including The Land of Green Plums and The Appointment.

Chicago Mystery Writer Stuart M. Kaminsky Dies at 75

Stuart M. Kaminsky, the author of more than 60 crime novels, died last Friday. He created several series characters: Toby Peters, a private eye in the 1930s and 40s;
Chicago cop Abe Lieberman; Lew Fonseca, a Seattle process server; and Moscow police detective Porfiry Rostnikov. Kaminsky typically wrote 2 or more books a year. In 2006, the Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master, the organization's highest award. Kaminsky taught film at the Northwestern University and Florida Sate University. He also wrote books about cinema,including American Film Genres: Approaches to a Critical Theory of Popular Film , Basic Filmmaking, , and John Huston, Maker of Magic. Kaminsky also wrote screenplays. Besides being one of America's most revered mystery writers, Kaminsky inspired many other writers in the genre, including fellow Chicagoan Sara Paretsky, who dedicated the first novel in her V. I. Warshawski private-eye series to Kaminsky.

Elmore Leonard to receive PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award

PEN USA has selected crime novelist Elmore Leonard to receive the organization's lifetime achievement award at a December ceremony. In announcing its selection, the organization stated "In a career spanning 60 years, Leonard has published 43 novels and numerous short stories, creating a distinct literary style that has delighted readers and influenced a new generation of writers. Books like Swag, LaBrava, Freaky Deaky, and Tishomingo Blues are not only classics of the crime genre, but some of the best writing of the last half century. Leonard’s most recent novel, Road Dogs, has received some of the best reviews of his career. He is currently finishing his next book, entitled Djibouti, to be published in 2010."
PEN USA's membership of more than 800 writers includes poets, playwrights, essayists, novelists as well as television and screenwriters, critics, historians, editors, journalists, and translators

National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month begins November 1. The goal is to write a 175 page or50,000 word, novel by midnight, November 30. You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. In 2008, there were over 120,000 participants. More than 20,000 finished their work by the deadline. From the website: "Because of the limited writing winow, the only thing that matters to NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly." For more information, see http://www.nanowrimo.org