We are terribly sad to note the death of our client, the remarkable Harriet McBryde Johnson,
who passed away on Wednesday, June 4,
at age 50. She would have objected to the epithet "remarkable," protesting that hers was an ordinary life. But while we hate
to contradict her, remarkable she certainly was. A disability rights activist and lawyer, she was also a hugely talented writer, who
came to national attention with the publication of her story
"Unspeakable Conversations" in
The New York Times
Magazine in 2003. Her memoir
Too Late to Die Young (Henry Holt 2005) is a delightful account of her varous adventures in life and
politics, and her novel
Accidents of Nature (Holt Books for Young Readers, 2006) is a vivid story of a girl's coming to
political conscience in a summer camp for disabled kids in the early 70's. Harriet was a fierce advocate for the right of disabled
people to determine their own lives, and the need for government to support them in that pursuit. Witty and contrarian, Harriet will
be sorely missed.
An editorial appreciation of Harriet is
here.
KINGSOLVER WINS JAMES BEARD AWARD
Barbara Kingsolver's ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE has won the 2008 James Beard Award for general food writing, presented at a Lincoln
Center Gala on June 8. The book also recently won the 2008 Book Sense Book of the Year Award for nonfiction. ANIMAL, VEGETABLE,
MIRACLE debuted in paperback in April, after spending 22 weeks on the
New York Times hardcover bestseller list last spring.
With her trademark warmth and humor, Kingsolver, her husband Steven Hopp and daughter Camille Kingsolver chronicle a year in which they
vowed to eat only what they could grow, or buy close to home. Nina Planck, in her starred
PW review, wrote: "Kingsolver takes
the genre to a new literary level; a well-paced narrative and the apparent ease of the beautiful prose makes the pages fly. Her
tale is both classy and disarming, substantive and entertaining, earnest and funny."
MICHAEL HARPER AWARDED FROST MEDAL FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN POETRY
Poet Michael S. Harper, University Professor and professor of English at Brown, has been named the recipient of the 2008 Frost
Medal from the Poetry Society of America, which honors distinguished lifetime service to American poetry. Harper received
the award on April 21, 2008, during the PSA’s 98th Annual Awards Ceremony at the National Arts Club in New York City. Robert Frost,
Edgar Lee Masters, Edna St. Vincent
Millay, Marianne Moore, and Wallace Stevens have all been honored with this award. Recent recipients include A.R. Ammons, John
Ashbery, Gwendolyn Brooks, Barbara Guest, Donald Hall, Anthony Hecht, Josephine Jacobsen, Galway Kinnell, Stanley Kunitz, James
Laughlin, Denise Levertov, Adrienne Rich, Sonia Sanchez, William Stafford, and Richard Wilbur.
Harper has published more than 10 books of poetry, most recently
Songlines in Michaeltree: New and Collected Poems (University of Illinois, 2000), and co-edited the
Vintage Book of
African-American Poetry (Vintage, 2000). He has taught at Brown University since 1970.
A new poetry collection,
Use Trouble, is forthcoming in fall 2008 from The University of Illinois Press.
In yet another tribute, Heather O'Neill's vibrant and heartrending first novel LULLABIES FOR LITTLE CRIMINALS (HarperCollins 2006)
was a runner-up for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, announced on June 4. This comes as the latest in a string of
accolades. LULLABIES won the 2007
Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for fiction, awarded by the Quebec Writers' Foundation, and was the winner of the CBC's Canada
Reads program for 2007. The book was a finalist for the Governor General Award in fiction, a top-100 pick of the
Globe and Mail,
a top-25 pick of the CBC radio show
Talking Books, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. The UK edition
was published by Quercus Books this past January. O'Neill, who lives in Montreal, is a regular contributor to the radio program
This American Life.
Donna Andrews has won the Agatha Award for Best Short Story for "A Rat's Tale," which first appeared
in the
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (2007). The award is given annually at the Malice Domestic convention, an organization
dedicated to promoting the traditional mystery form as immortalized by Agatha Christie.
Andrews has twice won the Agatha
for best novel, among many other awards.
Martin Duberman's THE WORLDS OF LINCOLN KIRSTEIN (Knopf 2007) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography, just
announced; the winner was John Matteson for his book
Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father
(W.W. Norton). Duberman's biography of the titanic cultural impressario was the subject of dozens of reviews;
Publisher's
Weekly wrote "A central figure in 20th-century American modernism, Lincoln Kirstein ... was the
driving force behind George Balanchine’s revolutionary New York City Ballet. Bancroft Prize-winner Duberman reveals in his
absorbing biography a man blessed, agonizingly, with great artistic taste and vision unaccompanied by artistic talent . . .
[Kirstein’s] was a high-wire life sustained by a stupendous manic energy (later darkening into demented fits that necessitated
electroshock) and enlivened by a parade of lovers of both sexes . . . Kirstein met everyone from Martha Graham to General Patton.
Through Kirstein’s funny, perceptive diary jottings and letters, Duberman paints an engaging portrait of bohemian New York and
its high-society patrons . . . Duberman conjures an indelible sense of a creative urge that became a torturous pilgrimage toward
an enigmatic muse."
Rutu Modan has been nominated for 2 Will Eisner Awards (the Oscars of the comics world). Her brilliant debut graphic novel EXIT
WOUNDS (Drawn & Quarterly) was nominated for Best Graphic Album (New), and Modan was nominated for Best Writer/Artist. The winners
will be announced at a gala awards ceremony on Friday, July 25, at the Comic-Con International gathering in San Diego.
Look for a Rutu Modan serial in the
New York Times Magazine beginning in June!
Eula Biss has won the 2008 Graywolf Press Literary Nonfiction Prize.
Her collection NOTES FROM NO MAN'S LAND: AMERICAN ESSAYS has been chosen as the winner of the 4th Annual Graywolf
Prize for literary nonfiction. Robert Polito
served as the outside judge for the contest, and Graywolf will publish in February 2009. Biss is the second Frances Goldin
Agency client to win the prize in the past three years; she joins Ander Monson, who was the winner in 2006.
James Kugel's HOW TO READ THE BIBLE (Free Press) was named the Jewish Book of the Year for 2007 by the Jewish Book
Council; the award was presented at a gala ceremony on March 4th at the Center for Jewish History in New York. The book
was also named one of the best books of 2007 by
PW. This wonderful book
was on the
New York Times extended bestseller list in the fall, and continues to
sell strongly. The noted biblical scholar offers his masterwork on the early scholarship of the Old Testament. Kugel was the
Starr Professor of Hebrew Literature at Harvard University and Professor of Bible at Bar Ilan University in Israel, and is
currently visiting professor at the University of Toronto. Writing in
The New York Times Book Review, David Plotz
called HOW TO READ THE BIBLE "an awesome, thrilling and deeply strange book ... [a] magisterial, erudite, yet remarkably
witty tour through the research...." The Israeli newspaper
Ha'aretz said "It may be the best popular book about
modern [biblical] scholarship ever written..."
The British edition of the hit THE DARING BOOK FOR GIRLS (HarperCollins UK), by Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz, debuted
on the
Times of London's bestseller list its first week on sale in February. This glorious follow-up to THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR
BOYS, filled with wonderful projects, games, stories and lore, was an instant smash in the US, with over a million copies in
print (it has just gone back on the
New York Times bestseller list, after briefly dropping off). Rights have been sold
in more than 10 countries. The first of two pocket-sized editions, containing material from
the original book plus all-new chapters, will go on sale in the US in May.
We are proud to announce that we have assumed management of the estate of Tillie Olsen, who is best known for her story
TELL ME A RIDDLE, first published in 1961 as part of a collection by the same name.
For more on Olsen's life and work,
read
her biography on Wikipedia.
Camilo Mejia's THE ROAD FROM AR RAMADI, originally published by The New Press, has been chosen as one of 2007's best books
by Alternet. After serving in the Army for nearly nine years, Sgt. Mejia was the first known member of the military to
refuse to fight in Iraq, citing moral concerns about the war and occupation. His principled stand helped to rally the
growing opposition and embolden his fellow soldiers. His powerful memoir has just been issued in paperback by Haymarket
Books.
2 Works Optioned for Film
Dreamworks has optioned film rights to Dan Crane's hilarious memoir TO AIR IS HUMAN (Riverhead), a story of the international
competitive air guitar circuit. Amy Schiffman of the Gersh Agency handled the deal; Steve Brill is set to
direct. Crane was previously the subject of a documentary film, "Air Guitar Nation." A
Los Angeles Times story about the
deal is
here.
Also recently optioned for film was Julia Scheeres' JESUS LAND (Counterpoint), her riveting debut memoir about growing up in a
white fundamentalist Christian family with two adopted black brothers. The book was optioned by Steve Stewart Productions; Amy
Berg ("Deliver Us From Evil") is to direct. Film rights were represented by Judi Farkas.
Great Reviews
Mark Scroggins's new book on the poet Louis Zukofsky, THE POEM OF A LIFE (Shoemaker & Hoard), has received raves from the
New York
Times and the
Washington Post. Michael Dirda in the
Post called the book
"splendid," and
Dan Chiasson in the
Times hailed it as
"a terrific new
biography." The book was also an "Editor's Choice" in the January 27 issue of the
New York Times Book Review.
Tooting Our Own Horn Department
Our own Matt McGowan was listed as one of the "Twenty-One Agents You Should Know" in the January/February issue
of
Poets & Writers Magazine.
Ander Monson has been named the winner of the 2007 John C. Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares for his book OTHER
ELECTRICITIES (Sarabande). The award honors the best debut book by a Ploughshares writer. And Monson's essay "Ceremony",
published by "The Believer" in September, has been chosen for W.W. Norton's anthology THE BEST OF CREATIVE NONFICTION 2007.
Monson's stunning stories move "from a world of hard but sparse facts to a storyscape of soft, fulfilling fictions." He
writes with distinctive whimsy and obsession, earning moments of inevitable, surprising beauty. "Everything in Michigan
is due to saws or mines or bombs or Vietnam....There's something unnatural, unbalanced, like an equation. Something to
be righted. Solved." Monson's prose is always charged and arresting as he plays with post-modern structures as deftly
as Stuart Dybek, William Gass, and the hypertext innovator, William Joyce.
