TODAY'S NEWS

Death Becomes Them at the 2008 Edgar Awards
By Jordan Foster
The 62nd Annual Edgar Awards held in New York last night saluted several of the genre’s stalwarts as well as recognizing an emerging group of talented newcomers. Outgoing Mystery Writers of America president Nelson DeMille passed the torch to the incoming president, Edgar winner Harlan Coben, who opened the evening by praising the wisdom of another multiple award-winner, Lawrence Block. The original motto of the MWA, said Coben, was “crime doesn’t pay…enough,” but added a tidbit he learned from Block early on his career: “nobody has to fail so that I can succeed.” Read on »

New York Approves Libel Tourism Bill
By Lynn Andriani
New York State Governor David Paterson signed a bill into law yesterday that will make it harder for “libel tourists” to threaten authors and publishers with foreign libel suits. The Libel Terrorism Protection Act prohibits the enforcement of a foreign libel judgment unless a New York court determines that it satisfies the free speech and free press protections guaranteed by the First Amendment and the New York State Constitution. It also allows New York courts, under certain circumstances, to exercise jurisdiction over non-residents who obtain foreign libel judgments against New Yorkers. Read on »

PEN Petitions Chinese Government to Release Imprisoned Writers
By Lynn Andriani
At a press conference in New York yesterday PEN announced its intent to petition the Chinese government to free 39 Chinese writers who have been jailed for exercising their right to speak and write freely. Francine Prose, Salman Rushdie, Edward Albee and Ian McEwan all spoke about the importance of allowing freedom of speech in China as the nation prepares to host the Olympics. Read on »

New Lynne Reinner Imprint to Focus on Cheaper Titles
By Claire Kirch
Lynne Reinner Publishers, headquartered in Boulder, Colo., is marking its 25th anniversary of publishing scholarly works and textbooks by launching a new division, to be called FirstForumPress. Like its parent company, FirstForum will target the academic market by publishing scholarly monographs. The new imprint’s titles, however, will be published in a more “timely and cost-effective” fashion for a smaller market than the 50-60 books released each year by its parent company. Read on »

Monday's Reviews Today: Clark's Limit and Theroux's Ghost Train
In Legal Limit, Martin Clark's "profound and moving" new novel, a law school student is haunted by the murder he watched his brother commit. The book, according to our critic, proves Clark's "most substantial and thought-provoking to date." Switching gears, in Paul Theroux's Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, the author recalls the trip he chronicled in his 1973 work, The Great Railway Bazaar. Theroux, taking "a contrarian stance toward the transformation of Asia over the intervening decades," here delivers "wonderfully evocative landscapes and piquant character sketches." Read on »

The PW Morning Report
By Lynn Andriani
Walters Admits Affair; Chicago Review Book Says Black Reporter Is Innocent; How Does the Pulitzer Board Fill Vacancies?; French Novelist's Mother Is Peeved; Zellweger to Star in Breast Cancer Film Based on Book; Charles Tilly Dead; Nat'l Geographic Wins Ellie for General Excellence Read on »

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MORE STORIES

Clarification
Despite Bloomsbury moving its distribution in Canada from Raincost to Penguin, as reported in Wednesday's PW Daily, the Harry Potter books will remain part of Raincoast.

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: The Sistine Secrets; Tobias Wolff; My Guy Barbaro
Opening today in limited theatrical release is the movie Then She Found Me, starring Helen Hunt, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler and Colin Firth. It’s based on Elinor Lipman’s novel, the movie tie-in of which is Then She Found Me (Washington Square Press, $14). PW’s review called it “an enchanting tale of love in assorted forms....” Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Let Them Eat 'Cake'
Associate director of publicity at Vintage and author of I Thought There’d Be Cake, Sloane Crosley, gets ready for her close-up in this shot, taken by the Riverhead art department. The author posed with one of the inventive dioramas she created to visually tell the stories of some of the essays in her book. Crosley’s dioramas can be seen in full on her site and in a video on YouTube. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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