An important new hire at PRH and yet another award for Colson Whitehead
Catching up with PW's Andrew Albanese
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Penguin Random House has announced the selection of Lisa Lucas as Senior Vice President and Publisher for Pantheon and Schocken Books. Currently Executive Director of the National Book Foundation, Lucas will begin her new role at the end of 2020 after completing work with the NBF.
“During her tenure at the National Book Foundation, Lisa Lucas powered the organization’s growth in reach and in the profile of its signature National Book Awards program,” reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer.
“What Lisa Lucas did for the National Book Foundation was historic and massively successful, and exciting, and important, and she did it in short order,” Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “Publishing won’t be as easy to turn around quickly, but if I were going to put my money on someone to make a deep, fast, and lasting impact on the book business, Lisa Lucas is at the top of that list.”
On Monday, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced that Colson Whitehead, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad, will receive the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction during the 2020 Library of Congress National Book Festival.
“The Prize for American Fiction is one of the Library’s most prestigious awards, and it honors an American literary writer, ‘whose body of work is distinguished not only for its mastery of the art but also for its originality of thought and imagination.’ At 50 years old, Whitehead is the youngest person ever to receive the Library’s fiction award, which is for a lifetime of work,” Albanese notes.
Thursday evening, Hayden and Whitehead discussed “Race in America” in an online program from the Library of Congress.
Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.
