Film The Box Based on a Richard Matheson short story opens

The Box, a thriller based on a short story by Richard Matheson, opens today Friday November 6th. In The Box, a mysterious man (played by Frank Langella) presents a wooden box with a button to a couple (Cameron Diaz, James Marsden) which, when pressed, does two things: the couple will receive $1 million and someone, somewhere in the world will be killed. The couple has 24 hours to decide whether or not to push the button. Button, Button was first published in Playboy in 1970, and later adapted as an episode for the television series The Twilight Zone in 1986.

2009 World Fantasy Awards

Winners of the 2009 World Fantasy Awards:

Life Achievement: Ellen Asher and Jane Yolen
Novel: The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford and Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
Novella: "If Angels Fight" by Richard Bowes
Short Story: "26 Monkeys, also the Abyss" by Kij Johnson
Anthology: Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy, edited by Ekaterina Sedia
Collection: The Drowned Life by Jeffrey Ford
Artist: Shaun Tan

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

Poet & Punk Rocker Jim Carroll Dead

Poet and rocker Jim Carroll died Friday. He is best known for his book The Basketball Diaries, an autobiographical tale of his life as a star athlete at Trinity, an elite private high school in Manhattan. Carroll, the son of a bar owner, attended Trinity on a scholarship. The Basketball Diaries, which began life as a journal, was first published in 1978. A 1995 movie version starred Leonardo DiCaprio. Carroll also published several poetry collections, including The Book of Nods(1986),Fear of Dreaming(1993) and Poems 1994-1997(1998). The singer Patti Smith encouraged him to break into music, and he formed the Jim Carroll Band. His 1980 album, Catholic Boy, is described as a landmark punk record. One of its songs, People Who Died. is Carroll's best known musical work. Among his other albums were the less successful Dry Dreams (1982) and I Write Your Name(1984).

Oprah's New Pick

Today Oprah Winfrey announced her new pick: Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan. The book is a collection of short stories originally published in the New Yorker. The book won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book 2009 and PEN/Beyond Margins Award 2009. Nigerian born Akpan studied philosophy and English at Creighton and Gonzaga universities. He studied theology at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. He was ordained a Jesuit priest in 2003 and received a Masters in Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Michigan in 2006. He now is assigned at Christ the King Church, Ilasamaja-Lagos, Nigeria.

Mystery Writer Lyn Hamilton Dead of Cancer

Lyn Hamilton, the author of the Lara McClintcoch archaeological mysteries, has died of cancer. Hamilton started this series when she was 50. Lara McClintoch is a Toronto antiques dealer who solves murders while traveling the world. Hamilton was twice nominated for an Arthus Ellis Award, for her debut mystery The Xibalba Murders and for the eighth book in her series, The Magyar Venus. The fourth book in the series, The Celtic Riddle, was the basis for a 2003 Murder, She Wrote movie starring Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher.
In 2008, Hamilton wrote on her website that The Chinese Alchemist would be the final book in her archaeological series. She added that "my plans are to retire from the mystery business, although I reserve the right to change my mind. Last fall, I had the pleasure of teaching mystery and suspense writing at the University of Toronto's School for Continuing Studies' Creative Writing Program. Lara, I believe, is renovating a casita in a little town north of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. So far not a single body has been uncovered."

Film Disgrace Opens Friday, September 18

Disgrace, based on the book by Nobel Prize Winner J. M. Coetzee, opens this Friday, September 18. Disgrace is the first novel to explore post apartheid South Africa. The novel won the Booker Prize in 1999 and the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2000. Many consider it a contemporary classic. The film is directed by Steve Jacobs and stars John Malkovich as a South African professor who is fired after seducing a student. Daniel Davies in The Lancet acclaimed the book "Disgrace offers an apocalyptic vision of contemporary South Africa....What transforms Disgrace from a good compelling book into a work of brilliance is its allegorical reach." The screenplay was subject to Coetzee's approval, and he has praised the film for "integrating the story into the grand landscape of South Africa."

Film based on Rucka's Graphic Novel opens Friday

WhiteOut, an action thriller based on the graphic novel by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber, opens this Friday, September 11, 2009. The film stars Kate Beckinsale, Gabriel Macht, Columbus Short, and Tom Skerritt. From publicity: "Antarctica … The most isolated landmass on Earth. 90° S. latitude, 0° E. longitude. Six million square miles of ice. Six months of darkness. Temperatures at -120°. Winds at 100 miles per hour. Nature never intended you to survive here. For U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko, things are about to get even more dangerous. The only law enforcement in this unforgiving territory, she has just been sent to investigate a body on the ice. Antarctica’s first homicide. A shocking discovery in itself, it will plunge her into an even more bizarre mystery and the revelation of secrets long-buried under the endless ice … secrets that someone believes are still worth killing for."

2009 Great Lakes Book Awards

Winners of the 2009 Great Lakes Book Awards are:

Fiction: The Great Perhaps by Joe Meno
General: The Foie Gras Wars by Mark Caro
Children's Chapter Book: The Blind Faith Hotel by Pamela Todd
Children's Picture Book: Thatt Book Woman by Heather Henson, illustrated by David Small
The association is also giving the Voice of the Heartland Award, recognizing "a person or company in the book industry for a lifetime contribution to regional books," to Becky Anderson, Anderson's Bookshops, Naperville and Downers Grove, Ill.

2009 Midwest Booksellers' Choice Awards

Winners of the 2009 Midwest Booksellers' Choice Awards, which honor "authors from the Midwest Booksellers Association region and/or books about the region" and are voted on by MBA members, are:
Fiction: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
Nonfiction: Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting by Michael Perry
Poetry: Swimming With A Hundred Year Old Snapping Turtle by Freya Manfred
Children's Picture Book: Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Harry Bliss
Children's Literature: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean
Honor recipients:
Fiction: A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
Nonfiction: Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the Worldd by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter
Poetry: Yellowrocket by Todd Boss
Children's Picture Book: Snow by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Lauren Stringer
Children's Literature: Savvy by Ingrid Law

Hugo Awards

The winners of the 2009 Hugo Awards, chosen by members of the World Science Fiction Society, are:
Novel: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Novella: The Erdmann Nexus by Nancy Kress
Novelette: "Shoggoths in Bloom" by Elizabeth Bear
Short Story: "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
Related Book: Your Hate Mail Will be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998–2008 by John Scalzi
Graphic Story: Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones, written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; art by Phil Foglio; colors by Cheyenne Wright

Awards: Crimespree Magazine; World Fantasy Finalists

Sean Chercover's Trigger City won the 2009 Crimespree magazine award for favorite book of 2008. Other winners were Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais (best in ongoing series), Brian Azzarello (favorite comics writer), Money Shot by Christa Faust (favorite original paperback, mass market or trade) You can see the runners-up in all categories at Crimespree's blog, Central Crime Zone.

Finalists have been named for this year's World Fantasy Awards. The winners will be announced at the World Fantasy Convention in October. The shortlist includes:
Novel:
The House of the Stag by Kage Baker
The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
Anthology
The Living Dead edited by John Joseph Adams
The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: Twenty-First Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant
Logorrhea edited by John Klima
Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy edited by Ekaterina Sedia
Steampunk edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
Collection
Strange Roads by Peter S. Beagle
The Drowned Life by Jeffrey Ford
Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
Filter House by Nisi Shawl
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan