Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond's Blog, page 16

Mitchell S. Jackson Wins 2014 Ernest J. Gaines Award

Mitchell S. Jackson‘s novel The Residue Years, a fictionalized account of his experience growing up in Portland, Oregon, has won the 2014 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. He will be formally presented with the prize on January 22, 2015 at the Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge, La. The Residue Years has been steadily racking up prestigious... Read more.

Behind the Joke, There's a Story

I’ve struggled for some time to process my thoughts on Daniel “Lemony Snicket” Handler’s watermelon comment at last month’s National Book Awards. Part of me was and is unbothered. A dumb joke about a black person not liking watermelon is closer to the not-worth-my-energy end of the Racial Harm Spectrum. But part of me felt frustrated and tired for Jacqueline Woodson... Read more.

Children's & YA Books Dominate Amazon's Best Sellers of 2014

2014 was a good year for publishers of classic children’s books and YA series. Of Amazon’s list of the best selling books of 2014, just 18 books intended for adult readers cracked the top 40. Of those that did, the bulk were SAT/ACT/college prep books and classics like To Kill A Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby,... Read more.

Barnes & Noble Buys Microsoft Out of Its Nook Stake

Barnes and Noble has ended its partnership with Microsoft in its ongoing fight to stay solvent amidst shifting consumer behavior, competition from Amazon, and negative revenue from their struggling Nook division. In 2012, Microsoft invested $300 million into B&N’s then-new e-reader business, but, the New York Times reports, “In just over two years, the Nook business has lost... Read more.

Barnes & Noble Buys Microsoft Out of It's Nook Stake

Barnes and Noble has ended its partnership with Microsoft in its ongoing fight to stay solvent amidst shifting consumer behavior, competition from Amazon, and negative revenue from their struggling Nook division. In 2012, Microsoft invested $300 million into B&N’s then-new e-reader business, but, the New York Times reports, “In just over two years, the Nook business has lost... Read more.

Shortlist Announced for DSC Prize for South Asian Literature

Last Thursday, November 27, 2014, the five member jury of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature announced the shortlisted titles in contention for its $50,000 prize. After initially culling 75 entries to a longlist of 10, the jurors selected these five books for the shortlist: The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Mirror of Beauty... Read more.

Jodi Picoult: When Men Write It, 'Women's Fiction' Gets 'Literature' Treatment

Colin Barrett Has Won the 2014 Guardian First Book Award

For his short story collection Young Skins, author Colin Barrett has won the 2014 Guardian First Book Award. Fiona MacFarlane’s The Night Guest, Henry Marsh’s Do No Harm, Evan Osnos’ Age of Ambition, and May-Lan Tan’s Things to Make and Break made up the shortlist. Announced on November 26th in London, the prize is worth £10,000 cash, plus an advertising package in the... Read more.

Apple to Pay E-Book Readers $400 Million in Antitrust Settlement

Unless an appeals court overturns a July 2013 ruling that Apple conspired with publishers with the aim of compelling Amazon to price their books at an advantage to publishers, Apple will have to pay  “$400 million to consumers in cash and e-book credits, and $50 million to lawyers” according to the New York Times. The NYT... Read more.

Journalists Gather to Honor Endangered & Slain Reporters

“There is a new war on journalists,” Alberto Ibargüen reportedly said in a speech at the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 24th Annual International Press Freedom Awards on November 25th. The president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and chairman of the awards dinner, continued, “Today’s terrorists will kill a journalist not to stop a story, but to... Read more.