Beyond Books YouTube Channel from ITN One

From The Bookseller: "ITN On, the multimedia arm of ITN, is to launch a book video channel on YouTube. Beyond Books will aggregate existing video from publishers with its own programming to create 'one home' for book-related content on the web. ITN said it had been working closely with publishing houses including Penguin, Faber and Random House to launch the service within the next week. The site, which has already been soft-launched, is to be funded by advertising, with cross-promotion via YouTube and ITN On's other YouTube channels: Entertainment, News, Music, Game On, and Extreme, which cumulatively attract 13 million views a month. Publishers will be able to add videos for free, via ITN On; the division is also offering its multimedia production services to create bespoke video for publishers"

Technorati Tag: Books

BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2009 winner

Leviathan, or The Whale by Philip Hoare (Fourth Estate) has been named the winner of the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2009
Technorati Tag: Books

Alice Munro wins 2009 Man Booker International Prize

"Alice Munro collected the Man Booker International Prize 2009 during a ceremony at Trinity College Dublin. The Canadian writer received a trophy along with the £60,000 award. The Man Booker International Prize is awarded once every two years to a living author for a body of work. The inaugural award was given to Ismail Kadaré in 2005 and the second to Chinua Achebe in 2007. Jane Smiley, chair of judges, gave a speech asking Alice Munro to receive the prize "as gratitude, our gratitude for her work." Smiley also called for more work to be translated into English and highlighted the importance of the Man Booker International Prize as "It offers a vantage point from which English language readers and publishers may survey the world"."

Royal Society Prize for Science Books shortlist

"It's a transatlantic race between the American academics and the UK's journalists and biographers in the competition for this year's Royal Society Prize for Science Books. The shortlist for the world's most prestigious awards for science writing was announced 25 June, and was made up of three books written by US academics and three written by British journalists and biographers."

The six books shortlisted by the judges are:

* What the nose knows: The science of scent in everyday life by Avery Gilbert (Crown Publishers)

* Bad science by Ben Goldacre (Harper Perennial)

* The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science by Richard Holmes (HarperPress)

* Decoding the heavens: Solving the mystery of the world's first computer by Jo Marchant (William Heinemann)

* The drunkard's walk: How randomness rules our lives by Leonard Mlodinow (Penguin)

* Your inner fish: The amazing discovery of our 375-million-year-old ancestor by Neil Shubin (Penguin)

The winner will be announced at an event at the Royal Society on 15 September 2009 and awarded £10,000. The authors of each shortlisted book will receive £1000

Oxfam Bookfest 2009

"From 4 to 18 July, Oxfam will be celebrating its love of books with more than 250 events in Oxfam shops, libraries, community centres and other venues around the UK, featuring a host of authors and celebrities. Some of the big names taking part in Bookfest include: Poet Laureate Carol Anne Duffy, Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, Mark Haddon, Kate Atkinson, Vikram Seth, Joanna Trollope, Anne Fine, Jonathan Coe, Marina Lewycka, Michael Faber and Nicholas Shakespeare. Plus there's James Robertson, Linda Newbery, Aileen Paterson, Mark Billingham, James Mayhew, Adele Geras, Cath Staincliffe, Barbara Erskine and Erica James..."

John Berger to donate archive to British Library

The eminent writer, critic, and thinker John Berger has announced the donation of his archive to the British Library. The archive of previously unseen 'put-aside objects' (Berger's description of archives in his collection Here is Where we Meet) is to be transferred to the care of the British Library from its current home in a remote French Alpine village later this month (June 2009). Jamie Andrews, Head of Modern Literary Manuscripts at the British Library, will travel to the Alps (setting off on 20 June 2009) to help sort through the papers - currently stored in an old stables - and bring them back to the climate-controlled storage areas in the heart of the British Library's flagship St Pancras building

The Miles Franklin Literary Award 2009 winner

The Miles Franklin Literary Award 2009 winner is Tim Winton for Breath