Riverhead Books is thrilled to announce that Lesley Nneka Arimah has won the 2018 New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award for her debut short story collection, WHAT IT MEANS WHEN A MAN FALLS FROM THE SKY. She received her prize during an awards ceremony at the New York Public Library on Thursday night, June 7.

Lesley Nneka Arimah and Riverhead Editorial Director Becky Saletan

This is the latest in a dizzying list of accolades for Lesley, including being named winner of a 2017 Kirkus Prize, a 2017 National Book Foundation “5 Under 5” honoree, a 2017 National Book Critics Circle finalist, and a 2018 finalist in the Society of Midland Authors.

Congratulations to Lesley and everyone at Riverhead.

Founded in 2001, the Young Lions Fiction Award is given annually to an American writer age 35 or younger for either a novel or collection of short stories. Each year, five young fiction writers are selected as finalists by a reading committee of writers, editors and librarians.

The New England Independent Booksellers Association (NEIBA) has announced that Random House Children’s Books Sales Manager Kate Sullivan has won its 2018 Saul Gilman Award, for outstanding service as a sales representative to New England independent bookstores. Congratulations to Kate on this well-deserved honor.

Kate Sullivan with Carl Hiaasen

In tandem with this recognition, the July 11 edition of NEIBA News leads off with a feature article on Kate that reads, in part: “Kate has always loved books, and was known to spend way too much time in the local library as a child; she even became a library volunteer during Junior High. Her first paying job with books was at Barnes & Noble in downtown Boston, where part of her job was to work with publisher reps on backlist orders, and she eventually became one of them as the NE rep for Pocket Books. After a couple of years she moved to Washington, DC to work for Ballantine Books but discovered that the mid-Atlantic states were a little too warm for a northern girl and moved back to New England. Due to some perfect timing (and Chuck Dresner) she became a rep for the Random House Merchandise Division, later renamed Random House Children’s Books, and the rest is history, a 31-year history.

“When she’s not selling, reading, merchandising, gift wrapping, driving, baking and selling some more, Kate can be found in a big old house in the country with her many rescue cats, inevitably doing a little more baking, gardening, home improving, and quilting. And always, more reading.”

Ten Speed Press authors Jim Meehan and Thad Vogler are winners of the 2018 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards in both book-related categories. The recipients of the 12th Annual Spirited Awards, considered the most prestigious accolades in the spirits world, were announced Saturday evening at the annual Tales of the Cocktail Festival in New Orleans.

Jim Meehan received the Best New Cocktail or Bartending Book award for his book, MEEHAN’S BARTENDER MANUAL. Thad Vogler was named the recipient of the Best New Book on Drinks Culture, History or Spirits for his book, BY THE SMOKE AND THE SMELL. Ten Speed is the publisher of 4 of the 8 finalists in these two categories.

Congratulations to Mr. Meehan and Mr. Vogler as well as their editors, publishers and everyone at Ten Speed Press.

The Tales of the Cocktail is a non-profit organization that educates, advances, and supports the global hospitality industry, and hosts the world’s premier cocktail festival annually in New Orleans. The Spirited Awards honor the world’s top bars, bartenders, writers, and cocktail experts.

The longlist of thirteen semi-finalists for the 2018 Man Booker Prize, one of the most influential annual English-language international literary fiction honors, has been announced from London. They were chosen from more than 170 submitted books being published in the UK between October 1, 2017, and September 30, 2018.

Here are our longlisted titles published by Penguin Random House imprints in the U.S., Canada and the UK:

THE WATER CURE by Sophie Mackintosh

US: Doubleday

Canada: Hamish Hamilton Canada

UK: Hamish Hamilton U.K.

WARLIGHT by Michael Ondaatje

US: Knopf

Canada: McClelland & Stewart

UK: Jonathan Cape

(Earlier this month, Mr. Ondaatje’s THE ENGLISH PATIENT was awarded the Man Booker Golden Prize, honoring the best work of fiction from the last five decades of the Man Booker Prize, as chosen by five judges, and then voted on by the public.)

WASHINGTON BLACK by Esi Edugyan

U.S.: Knopf

NORMAL PEOPLE by Sally Rooney

U.S.: Hogarth (4/16/19)

Canada: Knopf Canada (4/16/19)

THE LONG TAKE by Robin Robertson

U.S. Knopf (1/22/19)

FROM A LOW AND QUIET SEA by Donal Ryan

U.S.: Penguin Books

UK: Doubleday Ireland

EVERYTHING UNDER by Daisy Johnson

UK: Jonathan Cape

THE OVERSTORY by Richard Powers

UK: William Heinemann

THE MARS ROOM by Rachel Kushner

UK: Jonathan Cape

SNAP by Belinda Bauer

UK: Bantam Press

View the complete 2018 Man Booker Prize longlist here.

The shortlist for this year’s Man Booker Prize will be announced on September 20, and the winner revealed on October 16.

We warmly congratulate our semi-finalists, their editors and publishers.

Winners of the 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards have been announced and feature 4 books published by Penguin Random House imprints in the Fiction, Romance, Memoir & Autobiography, and Food & Cookbooks categories. Heralded as the only major book prizes determined by readers, the Goodreads Choice Awards are a true reflection of public opinion.  Congratulations to all of our award-winning authors as well as their editors and publishers.   Here are our Goodreads Choice Awards 2018 winners, in the following categories:

Fiction:

• STILL ME by Jojo Moyes (Penguin Books)

 
Romance: 

• THE KISS QUOTIENT by Helen Hoang (Berkley)

Memoir & Autobiography: 

• EDUCATED: A Memoir by Tara Westover (Random House)

 

Food & Cookbooks: 

• CRAVINGS: Hungry for More by Chrissy Teigen and Adeena Sussman (Clarkson Potter)

To view the complete list of 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards winners, click here.

We celebrate the respective publications today and September 10 of Salman Rushdie’s QUICHOTTE  and THE TESTAMENTS by Margaret Atwood with the happy news that both novels make the shortlist for the 2019 Booker Prize.  In all,  4 fiction works from our U.S., Canada, and U.K. imprints have been selected as finalists by the London-based judges for this coveted English-language fiction annual award. 

THE TESTAMENTS by Margaret Atwood

U.S.: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday

Canada: McClelland & Stewart

UK: Chatto & Windus

QUICHOTTE by Salman Rushdie

U.S.: Random House

Canada: Knopf Canada

UK: Jonathan Cape

GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER by Bernardine Evaristo

UK:  Hamish Hamilton

10 MINUTES 38 SECONDS IN THIS STRANGE WORLD by Elif Shafak

UK:  Viking UK

Click here for the complete 2019 Booker Prize short list.

Hearty congratulations to   Mr. Rushdie and Ms. Atwood as well as Ms. Evaristo and Ms. Shafak, and their publishing teams across our companies.

On to the awards dinner in London on Monday, October 14.

Penguin Random House Canada has been recognized as one of Greater Toronto’s Top Employers for 2020. The accolade, given annually for the past fourteen years through Canada’s Top 100 Employers to companies that set the standard for workplace best practices and forward-thinking policies, is awarded based on a rigorous evaluation of criteria ranging from employee benefits, vacation, and time off to work atmosphere to community involvement.  Now in its 20th year, Canada’s Top 100 Employers project is the nation’s largest competition of its kind.

Penguin Random House Canada, the country’s largest book publisher, is headquartered in downtown Toronto, where it employs over 200 people, with additional locations in Mississauga and Vancouver. Under the leadership of Kristin Cochrane, who became CEO in July 2018, the company is committed to being the best home for publishing talent through a comprehensive range of employee-centric policies and programs.

Among the highlights of Penguin Random House Canada’s notable offerings are a defined benefit plan and registered retirement savings plan matching program, a student loan repayment program, an industry-leading mental health and social work annual benefit, and an annual wellness reimbursement to encourage physical fitness. Development programs including a mentor-match system, in-house training opportunities, and a generous educational assistance program for job-related learning are also available to support employees in advancing their careers and enhancing their contributions to the company story.

Another notable benefit of working at Penguin Random House Canada—paid volunteer days—reveals a central theme: giving back. Employees have numerous opportunities to use their volunteer days with the company’s community partners across Canada, including the Indigenous Voices Awards, the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD), and First Book Canada, in partnership with whom Penguin Random House Canada has donated over 150,000 books to children from low-income families in Canada this year alone (and over 1.4 million books over the past seven years).

On receiving news of the award, Cochrane said: “We are extremely honoured to be recognized as a GTA Top Employer for 2020. We’re committed to putting employees at the centre of our decision-making and I’m proud of our ongoing commitment to our communities with both the books we publish and the social impact work we do in important areas such as Indigenous writing and children’s literacy.”

Adds Anika Holder, Vice President and Director, Human Resources: “A culture of inclusion is essential to safeguarding community, and community is a big part of who we are. It’s rewarding to have our workplace recognized for the support we have in place for our employees, and to have their contributions to a strong company culture recognized in this manner.”

More information about the award can be found here.

Penguin Random House Canada on publication day for THE TESTAMENTS and celebrating the Toronto Raptors NBA championship (2019).

HAIR LOVE, Matthew A. Cherry’s bestselling children’s book for Kokila that was conceived as an animated short film, won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film at last night’s 92nd annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.  A tender and empowering ode to loving your natural hair, and a celebration of daddies and daughters everywhere – HAIR LOVE was transformed into a bestselling children’s book, written by Cherry, a former NFL wide receiver, and illustrated by Vashti Harrison, published in May 2019 by Penguin Young Readers’ Kokila Books imprint.

In accepting his Oscar, Cherry said, “HAIR LOVE was done because we wanted to see more representation in animation; we wanted to normalize black hair … This award is dedicated to Kobe Bryant.  May we all have a second act as great as his was.” The late Los Angeles Lakers legend was the first African American and only other former professional athlete to win a Best Animated Short Film Oscar, which Bryant received in 2018 for Dear Basketball.

HAIR LOVE was directed by Cherry and produced by Karen Rupert Toliver.  The film’s team of animators included Everett Downing Jr. (Up, WALL-E) and Bruce W. Smith (The Proud Family), Peter Ramsey (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) and Frank Abney (Toy Story 4).

Our congratulations to Mr. Cherry, our colleagues at Kokila and Penguin Young Readers, and everyone involved with the creation of HAIR LOVE.

The yearly, nationally televised NAACP Image Awards are considered by many to be our country’s preeminent recognition celebrating the accomplishments of people of color in the popular arts.  We are particularly proud of the numerous Penguin Random House authors who are past “Image” finalists and winners, among them: Michelle Obama, Barack Obama, Maya Angelou, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jacqueline Woodson,  Marlon James, Terry McMillan, Walter Mosley, Bryan Stevenson, Daymond John, and Eric Jerome Dickey.  In this year’s competition, we carry that tradition of excellence forward with our 11 finalists for “Outstanding Literary Works.”  

Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction

THE WATER DANCER by Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World)

RED AT THE BONE by Jacqueline Woodson (Riverhead)

Outstanding Literary Work – Nonfiction

STONY THE ROAD: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Penguin Press)

THE SOURCE OF SELF-REGARD: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations by Toni Morrison (Alfred A. Knopf)

Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author

Kiley Reid

THE FARM by Joanne Ramos (Random House)

SUCH A FUN AGE by Kiley Reid (G. P. Putnam’s Sons)

AMERICAN SPY by Lauren Wilkinson (Random House)

Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/Autobiography

FINDING MY VOICE: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward by Valerie Jarrett (Viking)

THE BEAUTIFUL ONES by Prince (Spiegel & Grau/Random House)

MORE THAN ENOUGH: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say) by Elaine Welteroth (Viking)

Outstanding Literary Work – Children

HAIR LOVE by Matthew A. Cherry, illustrated by Vashti Harrison (Kokila)

Additionally,  two Penguin Random House Publisher Services client publisher titles were recognized with nominations:  BREATHE: A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry (Beacon Press), in Nonfiction, and  A PLACE TO LAND: Martin King, Jr. and a Speech That Inspired a Nation by Barry Wittenstein, illustrated by Jerry Pickney (Neil Porter Books /Holiday House) in the Children category.

NAACP Image Awards are also bestowed in the categories of music, television, and film.  In the latter, JUST MERCY, based on Bryan Stevenson’s Spiegel & Grau/Random House #1 bestseller, is nominated for Outstanding Motion Picture, and has four nominations in the acting categories. TONI MORRISON: The Pieces I Am and TRUE JUSTICE: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality are nominated for Outstanding Documentary (Film). Random House author Trevor Noah earned a “Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series” nomination for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah – “Steve King’s Comments Meet Trevor Noah: Racism Detective” (Comedy Central).

This year’s winners will be revealed in the two-hour live telecast of the ceremony on February 22 on BET Networks.

To view the complete list of NAACP Image Awards nominees, click here.

Congratulations and best of luck to our finalist authors and their publishers.

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation has announced its 10-title longlist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, which includes three books published by Penguin Random House imprints and one book published by a Penguin Random House Publisher Services publisher client.  The five finalists will be announced in March. The winner will be named in April and presented with a $15,000 prize at the 40th Annual PEN/Faulkner Award ceremony on Monday, May 4, in Washington, DC.

PRH Semi-Finalists:

WHERE REASONS END by Yiyun Li (Random House)
WE CAST A SHADOW by Maurice Carlos Ruffin (One World/Random House)
ON EARTH WE’RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press)

PRHPS Client Semi-Finalist:

THE NIGHT SWIMMERS by Peter Rock (Soho Press)

To view the complete 2020 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction longlist, click here.

Congratulations and good luck to our authors, their editors and publishers.