WHISPER by Mark Batterson won the Christian Living Award. FOLLOW THE CLOUD by John Stickl won in the New Author category. Congratulations to our authors, their publishing teams, and everyone at Multnomah and CPG. View the complete list of the 2018 Christian Book Award winners here. The Christian Book Award program has recognized the highest quality in Christian books since 1978. Based on excellence in content, literary quality, design, and impact, the Christian Book Award program is the oldest and among the most prestigious awards in the religious publishing industry. The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, formed in 1974, is an international non-profit trade organization comprised of member companies that are involved in the publishing and distribution of Christian content worldwide.

COOKBOOK Beverage MEEHAN’S BARTENDER MANUAL by Jim Meehan (Ten Speed Press) International NOPALITO by Gonzalo Guzman and Stacy Adimando (Ten Speed Press) Reference, History, and Scholarship CHAMPAGNE by Peter Liem (Ten Speed Press) Single Subject THE PHO COOKBOOK by Andrea Nguyen (Ten Speed Press)   BROADCAST MEDIA Television Program, in Studio or Fixed Location “Barefoot Contessa: Cook Like a Pro,” Ina Garten, Food Network (Garten’s upcoming Clarkson Potter book, COOK LIKE A PRO, will be published 10/23/18)   JOURNALISM Innovative Storytelling Melissa Clark, “The New Essentials of French Cooking,” The New York Times (Author of DINNER: Changing the Game, Clarkson Potter)   Congratulations to all of our prize-winning authors, as well as their editors and publishers. View the complete list of James Beard Foundation 2018 Cookbook, Journalism, and Broadcast Media Awards winners here. Winners of the 2018 James Beard Foundation Restaurant & Chef Awards (Ten Speed Press, Lorena Jones Books and Clarkson Potter authors/chefs/restaurateurs have 17 nominations among them) will be announced at a ceremony in Chicago on May 7.

The Crown presentation featured Campbell Wharton, Associate Publisher, Currency; Group; Derek Reed, Editor, Convergent; Donna Passannante, Vice President, Executive Director, Marketing, Crown Publishing Group; Carisa Hays, Vice President, Executive Director of Publicity, Crown Publishing Group; and Megan Schumann, Manager, Publicity, Crown Publishing Group. They provided insights into the acquisition, editing and publishing processes as well as marketing and publicity campaigns for the book, and how it could help change the conversation about charities and our personal involvement in good works. The event concluded with a lively question & answer session. A few days later, NYU student Amanda Orozco wrote a wonderful blog post titled “Thirst for Change: Crown Publishing and Author Scott Harrison Team Up to Make a Difference.” Here is an excerpt: “What if… ?” This question is a leitmotif for Scott Harrison’s life and new book. What if a nightclub promoter wanted to do more with his time? What if he gave up the New York club scene to help people in developing African nations have clean water? What if he started a charity, charity: water, that put 100% of its donations into building wells in African nations with poor or polluted water supplies? What if his efforts helped 7.3 million people in Africa finally have clean drinking water and a reduction in disease? What if he could grow his charity from two people to over 70 in less than ten years? What if he could raise $3 million in less than 15 minutes? What if he could change the way charities are run forever… and change lives? “NYU M.S. in Publishing: Digital & Print Media students found out the answers to these and other questions when they were invited to be early readers of THIRST, Harrison’s forthcoming memoir. They were given special reading galleys in preparation for a recent visit to Harrison’s publisher, the Crown Publishing Group. During their visit, the students got to hear the story behind the story – the amazing publishing process of this book – from the members of the team that are bringing the book to life.” To read the complete NYU blog post, click here. Please note: author Scott Harrison will be featured at a Penguin Random House “Lunch & Learn” on Tuesday, June 5 at 1745 Broadway. Check back on Igloo for details in the coming days.

Cavallari is a popular television personality whose previous NYT bestseller, BALANCING IN HEELS, focused on sharing what she has learned from her personal journey. Her newest, subtitled “A Mindful Kitchen with More than 100 Recipes Free of Gluten, Dairy, and Refined Sugar,” presents her approach to enjoying a toxin-free, healthy diet. The book was published by Rodale on April 3, was the #1 overall Nielsen Bookscan nonfiction title in its first week on sale, and is #1 on the April 16 Publishers Weekly overall bestseller list. Rodale Books’ Adult nonfiction publishing program is part of Crown’s Illustrated and Lifestyle division, whose other imprints are Clarkson Potter, Ten Speed Press, and Harmony Books. Aaron Wehner, who oversees the division as Publisher, described this occasion as “really thrilling,” adding that “special notice is due to several of our new colleagues--editor Dervla Kelly, originating publisher Gail Gonzales, and marketer Brianne Sperber—with a big assist from the Harmony team under Diana Baroni, Vice President, Associate Publisher, Editorial Director, who is also responsible for Rodale Books. TRUE ROOTS is a terrific book, published by a terrific team, and it should continue to roll.”

What was involved in the process of having Jo Nesbø retell MACBETH as part of the Hogarth Shakespeare Series? When we first conceived of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, my colleagues here and in the UK agreed that we wanted to give the participating authors as much latitude as possible on this project. When we approached Jo, we asked him which Shakespeare play he would be most excited about retelling, and when he came back with MACBETH, we were both thrilled and not entirely surprised. It is, after all, one of the Bard’s bloodiest. Once we matched the author with the play, there was very little directive – basically, “write a novel!” - and I’ve been amazed to see how each book has come back with its author’s own unique take on his or her play. Nesbø is no different – he took a timeless tale of ambition and madness and set it in a police department in an atmospheric port town, and the result is a page-turning thriller that stands up to the best of them.   How would you describe working with the author as his editor as this book came to be? [caption id="attachment_110713" align="alignright" width="197"] Alexis Washam[/caption] It’s been a true honor to work with all of the authors on our Hogarth Shakespeare list, and each of them has been incredibly open and gracious about the editorial process. All of the books in the series are published in collaboration with my colleagues at Hogarth UK, so in the case of MACBETH, Jo delivered his manuscript, fully finished and translated by Don Bartlett, to myself and the UK editor at the same time. We both read it at once (it was exciting to be one of the first to read a new Nesbø novel!), and then sent along our editorial notes to Jo and his agent. There was not very much that needed changing, as you can imagine. But he took our thoughts into consideration, and we did a small bit of work on the opening chapter in particular. Since the setting and the cast of characters would be new to Nesbø fans, we wanted to make sure we got the first pages exactly right, so they’d be instantly drawn in. We also had a conversation about the title: MACBETH is the only book in our series that shares its title with the play. At first, we weren’t sure about this exception, but after reading the manuscript it made sense. Since Jo had kept the names of the characters (he’s the only one who has done so, at least to this extent), we decided to stick with it. And it looks fantastic on a book cover! What elements of Nesbø’s MACBETH do you think will resonate with longtime fans of his Harry Hole novels as well as readers – particularly Shakespeare devotees – who may be coming to his fiction for the first time? Jo Nesbø’s novels are not just pulse-racing thrillers; his work has always explored the darkness and evil that is present in any seemingly functional society, and the chaos and infighting that serves as the backdrop to his MACBETH should be familiar to any fan of the play. Also, of course neither the play nor Nesbø’s work are strangers to violence – man’s worst impulses often result in murder and violent crime, and the Harry Hole novels and this new book make those acts of violence central to their plots. However, neither Nesbø nor Shakespeare was interested in bloodshed for its own sake; both in the original play and the novel, the character Macbeth’s deepest psychological demons and personal failings make for a compelling tale of a tragic fallen man.