Boston Based Book News, In Brief

"A citywide drought in large-scale book festivals" has inspired a local nonprofit organization to hold the 1st annual Boston Book Festival this fall. Making good great, it's open to the public...and free!


Roses are red, money is green. The 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize has been given to Fanny Howe of West Tisbury. The $100,000 prize is awarded annually by the Poetry Foundation "for lifetime accomplishments that warrant extraordinary recognition." To sample some of Howe's poetry, click here.


Here's a news item that's sure to make unpublished authors everywhere bitch howl: Catie Copley is the "canine ambassador" at Boston's Fairmont Copley Hotel. She has hew own e-mail address, business cards and a waiting list of hotel guests who want to take her for a walk. Oh, and she's "published" two books.


This past Tuesday, Bostonist interviewed How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgment author Michele Lamont. Lamont, who is also a Harvard professor, shared some secrets about academic funding, the admissions process, and the best way to get what you’re going after in academia.


The Boston Globe has approached union reps with a proposed 23% pay cut, claiming it's the only way to keep the newspaper from closing. The Guild has made a counteroffer -- a 3.5% pay cut -- claiming it's the only way to keep their members from starving. Will they meet in the middle before the hyperbolic 'Death of Newspapers'? We'll keep you posted.


Globe writers with a knack for saccharine and/or insipid local interest stories might want to head our way. GateHouse Media has announced plans to launch a free, seasonal daily on Cape Cod starting in June. The new publication, Cape Cod Day, will publish Tuesday through Saturday beginning June 23 and running through Labor Day weekend. The paper will have an average daily distribution of 25,000.