Excerpt of Interview with Jody M. Roy, Ph.D., and Frank Meeink from Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead

01 February 2010

Check it out at Hawthorne Books' blog

Publishers Weekly announces Hawthorne Books' first two-book deal with the lovely Lidia Yuknavitch.

25 January 2010

Read more about the two book deal, which includes a memoir, The Chronology of Water, and a novel, The Small Backs of Children: www.publishersweekly.com

Check it out at Hawthorne Books' blog

Peter H. Fogtdal, author of The Tsar's Dwarf talked about literary translations, chest tattoos, and why he's 97% happy with the English translation of his novel last week at LitChat.

04 January 2010

Read the transcript here... www.litchat.net

Hawthorne Books Donation Program

20 December 2009

Hawthorne donated to some fantastic organizations including Portland-based Write Around Portland (WRAP), Literary Arts’ Writers in the Schools, Outside In and Portland Public Schools. We also donated several cartons of books to the prison literacy program Changing Lives Through Literature.

Check it out at Hawthorne Books' blog

Scott Nadelson’s "Dolph Schayes's Broken Arm” to be published by Ploughshares, Spring 2010, edited by Elizabeth Strout.

02 December 2009

Read the story in the spring: www.pshares.com

This story is from Scott's new collection, Aftermath, due out from Hawthorne Books in 2011.

Hawthorne Books Online

03 November 2009

Hawthorne Books launches a blog: www.hawthornebooks.com/blog

Please follow Hawthorne Books on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hawthornebooks

Please become a fan of Hawthorne Books on Facebook: www.facebook.com

And if that is not enough, you can sign up for our newsletter. We promise to guard this information with our life. Follow this link to join our newsletter.

Hawthorne Books supports and attends the Wordstock Festival.

09 October 2009

www.wordstockfestival.com

Hawthorne Books' Author Sites

16 September 2010

Monica Drake www.monicadrake.com

Peter H. Fogtdal www.fogtdal.blogspot.com

Mark Mordue www.markmordue.com

Scott Nadelson www.scottnadelson.com

Lynne Sharon Schwartz www.lynnesharonschwartz.com

Tom Spanbauer www.tomspanbauer.com

Michael Strelow www.michaelstrelow.com

Loretta Stinson www.lorettastinson.com

Lidia Yuknavitch www.lidiayuknavitch.net

Hawthorne Books sells world rights to The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips to Riverhead Books.

02 April 2009

Geoffrey Kloske, Vice President and Publisher of Riverhead Books, today announced the acquisition of world rights to the critically acclaimed, award-winning debut novel by Gin Phillips, The Well and the Mine, from Hawthorne Books. Winner of the highly regarded Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award in the fiction category, The Well and the Mine is set in a small Alabama coal-mining town during the Depression and explores the value of community, charity, family, and hope during a time of hardship. In the wake of a mysterious crime witnessed by a nine-year-old-girl, her family is forced to look beyond its own door to see their community in all its complexity, and to learn a fuller definition of compassion.

Mr. Kloske commented, “This is a fabulous book, with a wonderful chorus of narrative voices, subtle textures, and multiple layers that are rarely found in a debut novel. Gin Phillips is an extremely talented emerging writer and The Well and the Mine is a very exciting addition to Riverhead’s award-wining, bestselling list.”

Kate Sage and Rhonda Hughes, Co-Publishers, Hawthorne Books, added, “The Well and the Mine is a warm, true, and accomplished novel that moves readers, and we are excited to be partnering with Riverhead to introduce it to the widest possible audience. Riverhead’s impeccable editorial choices and acumen make working with them an exciting proposition for us, and the relationship they have already cultivated with Hawthorne and with Gin gives us confidence that they will be wonderful stewards of this extraordinary work.”

Ms. Phillips said, “I’m very personally attached to these characters and to this story. And I’m grateful that, three years ago, Hawthorne took a chance on the book when no one else would. I’m thrilled and honored and still stunned by all the attention the book has received—it’s much more than I hoped for. And now I’m looking forward to working with Riverhead as they help The Well and the Mine connect with an even greater number of readers.”

Originally published as a trade paperback by Hawthorne Books in 2008, the new edition of The Well and the Mine will be available in trade paperback from Riverhead beginning April 8, 2009.

Gin Phillips and The Well and the Mine have received enthusiastic praise:

O, The Oprah Magazine called Gin Phillips “a dazzling new novelist,” and praised The Well and the Mine as “a quietly bold debut; full of heart.”

An “astonishing debut novel … Much like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Well and the Mine is about the strange contortions forced on humanity by racism and poverty.” —Los Angeles Times

“Phillips’s evocative first novel … moves skillfully between [many] points of view…With a wisp of suspense, Phillips fully enters the lives of her honorable characters and brings them vibrantly to the page.” —Publishers Weekly

“When you close the book, you’ll miss these characters. But The Well and the Mine doesn’t just give you characters who’ll stay with you—it gives you a whole world.” —Fannie Flagg, author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man

“It’s absolutely flawless: a beautiful Depression-era story told without irony. I reveled in its shades of Harper Lee and Faulkner. Timeless, captivating, honest, brave—and not one false move.” —Suzanne Finnamore, author of Otherwise Engaged and Split, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great Writers Award Judge

“Like Willa Cather’s, Phillips’ language is deep, clean, strong, and true; and her characters are at once interestingly familiar, human, refreshingly strange, complex… Gin Phillips is a truly great new American writer.” —Kate Christensen, Pen Faulkner Award–winning author of The Great Man, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great Writers Award Judge

NOTE TO THE PRESS

Gin Phillips is a freelance writer. A 1997 graduate of Birmingham-Southern College, she grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, and currently lives in Birmingham. The Well and the Mine is her first novel.

Riverhead Books is a distinguished and critically acclaimed imprint of Penguin Group (USA). It is home to many New York Times–bestselling and award-winning authors, including Khaled Hosseini, Junot Díaz, Kathleen Norris, James McBride, Daniel Pink, Nick Hornby, Sarah Vowell, Shalom Auslander, Dinaw Mengestu, and Aleksandar Hemon, among others. Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children’s trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks, including Viking, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, The Penguin Press, Riverhead Books, Dutton, Penguin Books, Berkley Books, Gotham Books, Portfolio, New American Library, Plume, Tarcher, Philomel, Grosset & Dunlap, Puffin, and Frederick Warne, among others. The Penguin Group (http://www.penguin.com) is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.

Hawthorne Books, founded in 2001, is a small press located in Portland, Oregon, publishing American literary fiction and narrative nonfiction. Its authors include award winners Poe Ballantine, Monica Drake, Peter H. Fogtdal (in translation), Scott Nadelson, Toby Olson, Tom Spanbauer, and Richard Wiley, among others.

The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips wins the Barnes & Noble Discover Fiction Award!

04 March 2009

On March 4, 2009, Barnes & Noble announced the winners of the 2008 Discover Awards.

From the Judges: "The Well and the Mine is an enthralling book, enthralling in the best way, without a whiff of showoffy pyrotechnics or earnest sentimentality. Like Willa Cather's, Phillips' language is deep, clear, strong, and true; and her characters are at once interestingly familiar, human, refreshingly strange, and complex. The novel's structure is deceptively sophisticated -- the narrative flow is so compelling, it almost obscures the subtle technical skill that went into its making. The Well and the Mine is pure pleasure to read, and achieves the quietest but most rewarding of literary endeavors: a good story, well told. Gin Phillips is truly a great new American writer." --Kate Christensen, author of The Great Man

"The characters in The Well and the Mine are both complicated and sweet, but never saccharine or watered down with false naivety. While there's just enough intrigue in the plot to keep you turning the pages, it's the characters -- their voices, their kens -- that remain after the final page is turned. Phillips artfully engages wit the traditions of Southern literature but somehow remains fresh and original. A brilliant and memorable novel." --Mark Jude Poirier, novelist and screenwriter of Smart People

"I find it impossible to believe that The Well and the Mine is a debut novel. It's absolutely flawless: a beautiful Depression-era story told without irony. I reveled in its shades of Harper Lee and Faulkner. Timeless, captivating, honest, brave -- and not one false move. It changed me." --Suzanne Finnamore, author of Otherwise Engaged and Split