News Bites: Enter to Win 100 Graphic Novels and More

And the Winner Is…

Register to win: The Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation, in conjunction with the American Library Association, has launched the Will Eisner Graphic Novel Prize for Libraries. Eisner was an acclaimed American comics writer, artist, and entrepreneur. The prize will be awarded annually to three libraries at the American Library Association’s (ALA) annual conference beginning with this year’s event in Anaheim, California (June 21-26). If you’re going to be at the ALA conference, visit the Reading with Pictures/Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation booth #788 and register to win more than 100 titles, including all the books nominated for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards (part of Comic-Con International), as well as the entire Will Eisner backlist of titles. In addition, a $2000 voucher will be given to the winning libraries to buy more graphic novels and they will also receive $1000 to hold comic-related or author events at the library. Winners will be announced at 4 pm on Sunday, June 24. The Brodart Company, the sponsor of the prize, will catalog and ship the graphic novels to the winning libraries.

At the Movies

From book to screen: The screen rights to Libba Bray’s The Diviners, the first title in a planned four-part series scheduled for September publication by Little, Brown, has already been acquired by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay will be adapted by Bray, who will also be the executive producer. Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, whose Fake Empire production company is best known for Gossip Girl and Chuck, will be the movie’s producers. Set in New York City in the 1920s, the novel features Evie O’Neill who has been sent to live with her Uncle Will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult. When a series of occult murders occur, Evie’s paranormal powers are called into action. Bray’s previously published books include A Great and Terrible Beauty (2003), Going Bovine, (2009, both Delacorte), and Beauty Queens, (Scholastic, 2011), among others.

Industry News

Comics: AMP! Comics for Kids, a new line of comics designed for middle-grade readers, will be launched by Andrew McMeel Publishing in August 2012. The series will debut with four titles, including two by Lincoln Peirce: Big Nate Makes the Grade and Big Nate All Work and No Play: A Collection of Sundays. The other titles are AAAA! A FoxTrot Assortment for Young Readers by Bill Amend and Lio: There’s a Monster in My Socks by Mark Tatulli.

Rights: Steelheart, fantasy author Brandon Sanderson’s first YA novel, will be published by Delacorte in Fall 2013, and simultaneously released as an ebook. It’s the first title in a projected trilogy by Sanderson, who is well-known for his bestselling “Mistborn” books for adults and his “Alcatraz” series (Scholastic) for middle graders. The novel “follows David, a teenager in the city that was once called Chicago, as he searches for the extraordinarily powerful Epic named Steelheart, who killed his father….Steelheart takes an action-heavy plot, layers in complexity, and delivers twists and a breathtaking conclusion, as David and the Reckoners try to undo the dystopia the Epics have created.” It’s rumored that negotiations are under way for a movie deal.

Out and About

Sendak exhibit: If you’re planning to be in Philadelphia, PA, be sure to visit The Rosenbach Museum and Library‘s new exhibit—”Maurice Sendak: A Legacy“—highlighting the children’s author/illustrator’s 65-year career. It will feature 65 pieces of his work at any given time, with new ones added every four months. The exhibit will run through May 26, 2013.

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