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Author Padma Venkatraman‘s most recent novel A Time to Dance was an Honour Winner in the 2015 South Asia Book Award and was chosen for inclusion in IBBY’s 2015 Selection of Outstanding Books for Young … Continue reading ... →

Today, I’m excited to talk with Stephen Roxburgh, founder of namelos, about Nancy Bo Flood’s beautifully written debut YA novel, WARRIORS IN THE CROSSFIRE. Nancy and I met at Vermont College of Fine Arts and it was there, in a workshop led by Marion Dane Bauer, that Nancy first began to revise WARRIORS.

DW: WARRIORS IN THE CROSSFIRE is a book you acquired while in your position as publisher of Boyds Mills Press.  In an interview on Cynsations, you said, “I love publishing first novels, and we always have one or two on our list.”  In fact, WARRIORS was one such book.

While many editors and publishers are hard put to quantify what piques their interest when reading a new submission, what elements of WARRIORS drew you to this particular manuscript and the decision to publish a first-time novelist?

SR: Initially the book came to my attention by way of my wife, Carolyn Coman, who knew Nancy from when she attended one of the Whole Novel Workshops Carolyn runs for the Highlights Foundation. I read the manuscript and immediately recognized its potential. In particular I was dawn to the subject, which struck me as fresh and exciting, and the voice, which is Nancy’s forte. At the time I don’t recall knowing it was Nancy’s first novel, but when I discovered that it was, I was delighted.

DW: You wrote a fascinating article in School Library Journal (“Literature in translation can break down barriers between cultures. So why is our nation so resistant?”, Jan. 1, 2004) about the difficulty of publishing literature in translation and the irony of such, given the emphasis in educational circles on “multiculturalism” and multicultural literature.

photo credit: Knexon

WARRIORS IN THE CROSSFIRE, though not a book in translation, is a book about a time and place – Saipan during World War II – that is largely, to my knowledge, unexplored in children’s fiction and unfamiliar to many.

Much has be

A Publishers Weekly story this week http://tinyurl.com/ocydmf caught my attention when I noticed my former publisher's name, Stephen Roxburgh, founder of Front Street and former publisher at Boyds Mills Press.

Kindle, eBooks Discussion in The Horn Book This Month...

Lately I've had Kindle on the brain. First was the Oprah to-do in which Ms. Winfrey declared it to be her favorite new gadget and said it changed her life. Then I started seeing tests for a Kindle version of CWIM. (It's OK but not great at this point. It seems the Kindle's not awesome with books that are not straight text. There are some funky icons and weird caption placement and things like that, but I'm told Kindle users are used to such things. I was surprised how good the images showed up, however.) Getting our Market Books (as well as a host of other F+W Media titles) ready for Kindle and other electronic readers is a hot project around here.

Seeing the CWIM test was actually my first in-person encounter with the Kindle. I can understand it's appeal, but I'm not sure it's a gadget I'll be snapping up any time soon. I'm in love with the printed book. The feel. The smell. The piles in the corner of every room. The 87 boxes of them I have to back every time I move. I don't mind lugging a book in my carry-on luggage. And at $359, I'd rather buy an iPhone or a really awesome pair of boots.

When I opened my November/December issue of The Horn Book which a big section titled "When e- Is for Reading," in which several writers discuss reader-gadgets, I read it with great interest. Here's a bit from Stephen Roxburgh that puts things in perspective:

And, for the moment, let’s not engage in the “death of the book as we know it” debate. Technology is the means to an end, and not necessarily the end of a means. Think about the fact that people still walk, bicycle, ride horses, drive cars, take trains, and fly to get where they are going. When we read, we have a goal in mind. We are going somewhere.

Roxburgh Leaving Boyds Mills...


In case you haven't seen the news in PW Daily and PW Children's Bookshelf:

Stephen Roxburgh has resigned as publisher at Boyds Mills Press. He was appointed to the position in February 2007, taking over from Kent Brown, who will serve as interim publisher following Roxburgh’s resignation. Previously, Roxburgh had been associate publisher at Boyds Mills, after the company’s 2004 acquisition of Front Street Books, which Roxburgh founded in 1994. “If anybody looks at our record, they’ll see we’re long-term players,” said Brown, who called Roxburgh a friend and said he respects his decision to resign. “We have a great team of people making books.”