The Book Industry Charitable Foundation has announced the winners of the Susan Kamil Scholarship for Emerging Writers, which awards $10,000 each to aspiring writer-booksellers working on full-length manuscripts.
The five recipients are:
Nicole Brinkley, manager of Oblong Books in Rhinebeck, N.Y., who is working on a science fiction manuscript;
Rachel Dillon, book events and programming manager at Beacon Hill Books & Cafe in Boston, Mass., whose manuscript is a poetry collection focusing on Gloucester, Mass.;
Brendan McHugh, bookseller at Green Apple Books in San Francisco, Calif., whose writing explores San Francisco's response to the AIDS crisis;
Liv Morris, bookseller at Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass., who is working on a middle grade manuscript;
Joanna Roddy, bookseller at Roundabout Books in Bend, Ore., whose manuscript is a YA contemporary dark fantasy.
The scholarship is named for Susan Kamil, who was executive v-p and publisher of Random House prior to her death in 2019 and was known for recognizing and introducing new voices. Bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Charles Duhigg and his wife, Liz Alter, who is a biology professor at California State University Monterey Bay, established the scholarship, with Binc administrating.
"These five writers--and all the applicants--show why booksellers are so important: they share new stories, build communities and, ultimately, keep our democracies strong," said Duhigg. "I know Susan would have loved these books and would have loved supporting writers bringing more beauty and truth into the world."
Pam French, Binc's executive director, noted that more than 250 writer-booksellers applied for the scholarship, resulting in Binc increasing the number of judges on the selection panel from four to seven. Added French: "We are grateful to them, Charles and Liz, and all the talented book and comic people we expect to be reading in the coming years."