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Omni Daily News

by Tom on February 16, 2011

Unreliable witness: Lots of attention this morning for Diana B. Henriques's prison interview--the first--with Bernie Madoff in the NYT, in which Madoff claimed that banks and funds he worked with "had to know" something was up, but that his own family knew nothing. The interview (and related emails) were for Henriques's upcoming book, The Wizard of Lies, which Times Books has moved up to an April publication date. We currently have an "Email Me When Available" page up for the book, and should be able to take pre-orders very soon.

Five from the East: The Man Asian Literary Prize (often known as the "Asian Booker," which must please the Man Booker Prize's former sponsors, whose name outlives their sponsorship even on prizes they were never involved with), having changed course in its fourth year from honoring books not yet published in English to ones already in print, announced their shortlist today, including authors from India, China, and Japan, one of them a Nobel Prize winner. The winner is revealed in March:

Three Sisters by Bi Feiyu
Serious Men by Manu Joseph
The Thing About Thugs by Tabish Khair (not published outside India yet)
The Changeling by Kenzaburo Oe (just out last week in paperback here)
Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa (author of the popular Housekeeper and the Professor)

Margaret McElderry, 1912-2011: Margaret McElderry, one of the children's book editors to best earn the term "legendary," died Monday in Manhattan at the age 98. McElderry was the first children's editor to launch an imprint bearing her name (which continues to thrive four decades later), and among the books she published were Mary Norton's Borrowers books and Susan Cooper's Dark Is Rising series, along with Finders Keepers and Ginger Pye, which gave her an unprecedented sweep of the Caldecott and Newbery awards in 1952. There are obits at the NYT and School Library Journal, and you can find a two-part interview from The Horn Book and an account of a visit to her alma mater, Mount Holyoke (class of '33!).

Moving and shaking: Carrie Fisher's visit (with her mom, Debbie Reynolds) on Oprah yesterday moved the paperback edition of Wishful Drinking (with, yes, one of the greatest covers ever) up the ranks of today's Movers & Shakers.

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