Thursday, November 6, 2008
PRESS RELEASES: William Morrow to Publish New Nonfiction Books by Neil Gaiman + Solaris Books’ New SF Anthology!
William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, announced on November 6, 2008 plans to publish three nonfiction books by acclaimed writer Neil Gaiman, author of the New York Times bestselling novels Anansi Boys, American Gods, The Graveyard Book, and Coraline, among others, and creator of “The Sandman” series of graphic novels.
The first book of the three-book deal is entitled “Monkey and Me: China and the Journey to the West”, and is inspired by Journey to the West, the classical Chinese text by Wu Cheng’en, who lived in the 16th century. Gaiman’s longtime editor, Senior Vice President and Director of Editorial Development Jennifer Brehl, acquired global world English and Chinese language rights from Merrilee Heifetz of Writers House. The books will be published simultaneously by HarperCollins in the UK, and in Chinese by HarperCollins China. The as-yet-untitled second and third books will focus on subjects that have been explored over the years on Gaiman’s enormously popular online journal, or blog. The blog was started in 2001 at Gaiman’s Official Website, and has grown to more than 1.5 million words. It is one of the most popular destinations on the web for people who relish Gaiman’s humor, commentary, and his unique perspective on the world. “Monkey and Me” will be Gaiman’s first nonfiction book since his bestselling novel about Douglas Adams, “Don’t Panic: The Official Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Companion”, was published in 1988.
Lisa Gallagher, Senior Vice President and Publisher of William Morrow said, “It is thrilling to be working with Neil Gaiman on nonfiction, particularly about a subject that he’s so passionate about. Looking at China through the prism of myth and history is the perfect approach for Neil.”
Gaiman, whose novels, story collections, and books for children and young adults have sold millions of copies around the world, first visited China during the summer of 2007. When he returned home, Gaiman said, “I realized that all my preconceptions were simply wrong, and that China was much more interesting, huge, contradictory, and odd than I could have imagined. A place of relentless social change and reinvention that was still directly connected to events and decisions made hundreds and thousands of years ago in a way that’s almost unimaginable in the west.”
Gaiman has recently completed the first of a series of trips to China “to undertake my own journey to the west—by car and coach and train and foot. I’ve crossed China in the footsteps of a real seventh century monk and a mythical seventh century monk (and monkey, and pig, and reformed cannibal water monster). I’ve been stranded in the middle of nowhere, had a man try to sell me a human elbow outside a ruined temple, and ridden on an open truck through Hong Kong with dragon dancers. I’ve met mummies, crossed deserts, broken a finger halfway down a mountain, encountered tailors and grottoes and mysteries. And eaten some remarkable things. China is a country of contradictions, and it’s filled with stories.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Neil Gaiman has been hailed by the Washington Post Book World as “a national treasure.” He is the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of the #1 New York Times bestselling novel Anansi Boys, as well as the bestselling novels American Gods, Coraline, The Graveyard Book, Neverwhere, and Stardust, and the short story collections Fragile Things and Smoke and Mirrors. He has also written the bestselling children’s books The Wolves in the Walls, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (both illustrated by Dave McKean) and The Dangerous Alphabet (illustrated by Gris Grimly). He wrote the script for the film MirrorMask and is the creator of the Sandman series of graphic novels. Among his many literary awards are the World Fantasy Award, the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Bram Stoker Award. Originally from England, Gaiman now lives in the United States.
ABOUT HARPER COLLINS PUBLISHERS:
HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups around the world including the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children's Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand and HarperCollins India. HarperCollins is a broad-based publisher with strengths in literary and commercial fiction, business books, children's books, cookbooks, mystery, romance, reference, religious and spiritual books. With nearly 200 years of history HarperCollins has published some of the world's foremost authors and has won numerous awards including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott.
Solaris Books is delighted to announce a major new anthology from editor Jetse De Vries. “Shine” is a science fiction collection of near-future and optimistic stories, where some of the genres’ brightest stars and some of its most exciting new talents portray the possible roads to a better tomorrow. Definitely not a plethora of Pollyannas (but neither a barrage of dystopias), “Shine” will show that positive change is far from being a foregone conclusion, but needs to be hard-fought, innovative, robust and imaginative. Most importantly, it aims to demonstrate that while times are tough and outcomes are uncertain, we can still bend the future in benevolent ways if we embrace change and steer its momentum in the right direction.
Christian Dunn said of the deal: “Jetse has been quite vocal in his opinions about moving SF in a more positive direction, and it’s a journey Solaris are delighted to be accompanying him on.”
Jetse de Vries was co-editor of Interzone for four-and-a-half years, and his non-fiction has appeared in The New York Review of Science Fiction, the BSFAs Focus and others. His fiction has appeared in a few dozen publications on both sides of the Atlantic, most recently in Postscripts, Clarkesworld Magazine, Hub, Escape Pod, and Flurb. “Shine” is his first post-Interzone project. For more information on Jetse and the “Shine” anthology, visit the Official Jetse de Vries Blog and the Official Shine Anthology Blog.
About Solaris Books:
BL Publishing, a division of Games Workshop Group PLC has been publishing SF and Fantasy under its Black Library imprint for over ten years. Solaris was founded in February 2007 with the aim of publishing original genre fiction for the US and UK mass markets. In its first year Solaris gained praise from many critics, especially for its back to basics approach. Solaris continues to attract high profile authors to its stable. For more information visit the Official Solaris Books Website.
The first book of the three-book deal is entitled “Monkey and Me: China and the Journey to the West”, and is inspired by Journey to the West, the classical Chinese text by Wu Cheng’en, who lived in the 16th century. Gaiman’s longtime editor, Senior Vice President and Director of Editorial Development Jennifer Brehl, acquired global world English and Chinese language rights from Merrilee Heifetz of Writers House. The books will be published simultaneously by HarperCollins in the UK, and in Chinese by HarperCollins China. The as-yet-untitled second and third books will focus on subjects that have been explored over the years on Gaiman’s enormously popular online journal, or blog. The blog was started in 2001 at Gaiman’s Official Website, and has grown to more than 1.5 million words. It is one of the most popular destinations on the web for people who relish Gaiman’s humor, commentary, and his unique perspective on the world. “Monkey and Me” will be Gaiman’s first nonfiction book since his bestselling novel about Douglas Adams, “Don’t Panic: The Official Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Companion”, was published in 1988.
Lisa Gallagher, Senior Vice President and Publisher of William Morrow said, “It is thrilling to be working with Neil Gaiman on nonfiction, particularly about a subject that he’s so passionate about. Looking at China through the prism of myth and history is the perfect approach for Neil.”
Gaiman, whose novels, story collections, and books for children and young adults have sold millions of copies around the world, first visited China during the summer of 2007. When he returned home, Gaiman said, “I realized that all my preconceptions were simply wrong, and that China was much more interesting, huge, contradictory, and odd than I could have imagined. A place of relentless social change and reinvention that was still directly connected to events and decisions made hundreds and thousands of years ago in a way that’s almost unimaginable in the west.”
Gaiman has recently completed the first of a series of trips to China “to undertake my own journey to the west—by car and coach and train and foot. I’ve crossed China in the footsteps of a real seventh century monk and a mythical seventh century monk (and monkey, and pig, and reformed cannibal water monster). I’ve been stranded in the middle of nowhere, had a man try to sell me a human elbow outside a ruined temple, and ridden on an open truck through Hong Kong with dragon dancers. I’ve met mummies, crossed deserts, broken a finger halfway down a mountain, encountered tailors and grottoes and mysteries. And eaten some remarkable things. China is a country of contradictions, and it’s filled with stories.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Neil Gaiman has been hailed by the Washington Post Book World as “a national treasure.” He is the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of the #1 New York Times bestselling novel Anansi Boys, as well as the bestselling novels American Gods, Coraline, The Graveyard Book, Neverwhere, and Stardust, and the short story collections Fragile Things and Smoke and Mirrors. He has also written the bestselling children’s books The Wolves in the Walls, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (both illustrated by Dave McKean) and The Dangerous Alphabet (illustrated by Gris Grimly). He wrote the script for the film MirrorMask and is the creator of the Sandman series of graphic novels. Among his many literary awards are the World Fantasy Award, the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Bram Stoker Award. Originally from England, Gaiman now lives in the United States.
ABOUT HARPER COLLINS PUBLISHERS:
HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups around the world including the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children's Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand and HarperCollins India. HarperCollins is a broad-based publisher with strengths in literary and commercial fiction, business books, children's books, cookbooks, mystery, romance, reference, religious and spiritual books. With nearly 200 years of history HarperCollins has published some of the world's foremost authors and has won numerous awards including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott.
Solaris Books is delighted to announce a major new anthology from editor Jetse De Vries. “Shine” is a science fiction collection of near-future and optimistic stories, where some of the genres’ brightest stars and some of its most exciting new talents portray the possible roads to a better tomorrow. Definitely not a plethora of Pollyannas (but neither a barrage of dystopias), “Shine” will show that positive change is far from being a foregone conclusion, but needs to be hard-fought, innovative, robust and imaginative. Most importantly, it aims to demonstrate that while times are tough and outcomes are uncertain, we can still bend the future in benevolent ways if we embrace change and steer its momentum in the right direction.Christian Dunn said of the deal: “Jetse has been quite vocal in his opinions about moving SF in a more positive direction, and it’s a journey Solaris are delighted to be accompanying him on.”
Jetse de Vries was co-editor of Interzone for four-and-a-half years, and his non-fiction has appeared in The New York Review of Science Fiction, the BSFAs Focus and others. His fiction has appeared in a few dozen publications on both sides of the Atlantic, most recently in Postscripts, Clarkesworld Magazine, Hub, Escape Pod, and Flurb. “Shine” is his first post-Interzone project. For more information on Jetse and the “Shine” anthology, visit the Official Jetse de Vries Blog and the Official Shine Anthology Blog.
About Solaris Books:
BL Publishing, a division of Games Workshop Group PLC has been publishing SF and Fantasy under its Black Library imprint for over ten years. Solaris was founded in February 2007 with the aim of publishing original genre fiction for the US and UK mass markets. In its first year Solaris gained praise from many critics, especially for its back to basics approach. Solaris continues to attract high profile authors to its stable. For more information visit the Official Solaris Books Website.
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Robert |
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