August 1, 2010
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Celebra Hardcover
Available November 2, 2010 in Hardcover
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An intimate look behind the CNN journalist’s most compelling reporting moments and how it has shaped her perspective on America’s future.
“Story is our medium. It’s how we connect emotionally with our viewers. And it’s how we make sense of our world…When we talk about a ‘big story,’ we’re really talking about what resonates with people, what matters to them…And I think when it comes to our national narrative, what we need to realize is that we’re all contributing to the story, that we can affect where this country is going.”
From top CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien comes a highly personal look at her biggest reporting moments from Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami in Southeast Asia, the devastating Haiti earthquake to the historic elections and high profile interviews with everyday Americans. Drawing on her own unique background and consciousness as well as her experiences as a journalist at the front lines of the most provocative issues in today’s society-and particularly from her work as host of the acclaimed series Black in America and Latino in America-O’Brien offers her candid, clear-eyed take on where we are as a country and where we’re going.
What emerges is both an inspiring message of hope and a glimpse into the heart and soul of one of America’s most straight-talking reporters.
The Next Big Story: My Journey Through the Land of Possibilities
by Soledad O’Brien with Rose Marie Arce
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April 3, 2010
By FELICIA R. LEE
Published: March 22, 2010
The New York Times
The 10th National Black Writers’ Conference begins on Thursday at Medgar Evers College in New York, an anniversary that prompted Walter Mosley to remember his first conference, in the 1980s. He was just one of many unpublished, struggling writers who showed up, he said. An editor had passed on his first novel, about the detective Easy Rawlins, with the rationale that the publishing house already had a black detective novel.
“Terry McMillan said you have to sell books out of the trunk of your car,” Mr. Mosley said.
But in the age of President Obama, when successful black writers can be found across genres and a Nobel Prize winner, Toni Morrison, can be tapped to be the honorary chairwoman of the event, do black writers still need a conference to call their own?
In interviews, many black writers and editors, and others in the book world said yes. Black authors are part of the broader society’s struggles with the legacy of discrimination and exclusion, they said, and often need a more strategic approach to getting their work promoted, reviewed and sold.
The conference, expected to attract 2,000 people, is a chance for writers to study and celebrate one another and for readers to hear writers presenting their work and dissecting social and literary themes. Over four days of workshops and discussions, the participants can also grapple with issues like the value of black sections in bookstores, the paucity of black editors in publishing and how to expand the list of black writers taught in schools.
For the full article, see The New York Times.
January 31, 2010
Bloomsbury book cover stirs anger
For the second time in less than a year, Bloomsbury USA has put a white girl on the cover of a book that’s about a girl of color.
First it was Justine Larbalestier’s “Liar,” which has an African American protagonist. This time, the book is “Magic Under Glass” by Jaclyn Dolamore. The romantic fantasy features Nimira, a brown-skinned protagonist, but the figure on the cover that was shipped to stores is white.
Carolyn Kellogg
Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-quick23-2010jan23,0,4795756.story
September 4, 2009
The Venus Pen by Tanya Hodges
Late last fall, EbonyJet.com announced the online only re-launch of the popular Gertrude Johnson Williams Short Story Fiction Competition, a project initially started in 1990 by JPC’s founder, John H. Johnson. The competition was named in tribute to Mr. Johnson’s mother, Gertrude Johnson Williams, an avid fan of reading and supporter of the literary arts.
The response was, in a word, overwhelming. Hundreds of entries streamed in within hours of announcing the contest, with the bulk showing up just prior to the final deadline.
In the past, a small group of noted judges made an initial cut from the entries, and the editors of Ebony selected the final winners. This time we decided to reverse the process. Eric Easter and Terry Glover of EbonyJet.com made the preliminary cuts to the semi-finalist round, and a team of star authors including mystery writer Walter Mosley, novelist Trey Ellis, author Sandra Jackson-Opoku and Ebony senior writer Joy Bennett (daughter of Lerone Bennett, Jr.) scored the final selections.
The final competition was tight, with only fractions of a score separating the final winner from the five finalists. But in the end the story with the highest score was The Venus Pen, by Alabama amateur writer and substitute teacher, Tanya Hodges.
The text of the story appears in the July issue of Ebony Magazine.
Ebony Jet
August 23, 2009
Peter Svensson, Ap Technology Writer – Sat Aug 15, 2:29 am ET
NEW YORK – Thanks to Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle, e-book sales are finally zooming, after more than a decade in the doldrums.
But the pioneering device may not dominate the market for long. As Castaldo found, many phones are now sophisticated enough, and have good enough screens, to be used as e-book reading devices. In addition, e-book reading on computers is already surprisingly popular.
E-book sales reported to the Association of American Publishers have been rising sharply since the beginning of 2008, just after the release of the Kindle. It’s the best sustained growth the industry has seen since the International Digital Publishing Forum began tracking sales in 2002 — a sign that e-books finally could be about to break into the mainstream.
U.S. trade e-book sales in the April to June period this year more than tripled from the amount a year ago, as reported by about a dozen publishers.
Total reported sales at wholesale prices were $37.6 million. That’s less than 2 percent of the overall book market, but the number understates e-book sales, because not all publishers contribute to the report. The figure also excludes textbooks, an area where e-books have made substantial inroads.
See Yahoo News for more information.
August 23, 2009
Wed Aug 12, 6:12 pm ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A luxury publishing company said on Wednesday it is putting together a Michael Jackson photo book that the pop star wanted to create before his sudden death about two months ago.
Kraken Opus said “The Official Michael Jackson Opus” will be available for customers through the website of concert ticket seller Ticketmaster, with delivery set for the Christmas holiday season.
Kraken said it had been in discussions with the pop star before he died, and now the book has been endorsed and approved by Jackson’s estate.
The book will detail the “Thriller” singer’s life and career, span 400 pages of photos and text, weigh 38 pounds, come bound in leather with a silk clamshell case. It will cost $165.
For more information, see Yahoo News.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
October 10, 2008
Would-be King biographer caught in sibling feud
By ERRIN HAINES, Associated Press Writer Fri Oct 10, 5:12 PM ET
ATLANTA – An author and minister who spent hours interviewing Coretta Scott King for her biography said Friday that she may abandon the project because of the drawn-out, public legal feud among the King siblings.
In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, the Rev. Barbara Reynolds said she did not want the 30-year relationship she shared with the civil rights matriarch tarnished by the ongoing fight among the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s children.
“She was a woman of dignity, but I don’t see anything dignified about all of this,” Reynolds said, noting that she’d like to finish the book with the family’s blessing. “I just may walk away and refuse to write anything. I’m not going to soil that relationship nor that memory.”
The siblings are expected to appear Tuesday in Fulton County court to argue over who should have control of several personal papers, including intimate correspondences between their parents, that could be part of a $1.4 million publishing deal negotiated by Dexter King as head of his father’s estate.
The lawsuit — one of three involving the Kings filed since July — could derail Reynolds’ book deal. New York-based publisher Penguin Group is threatening to yank the contract if the papers are not turned over by Oct. 17.
