You
probably are done with the bombardment of annual lists – reviews of 2016, best
of this, worst of that prediction for the New Year. But here’s a list that might not have gotten
enough attention: the great writers lost
in 2016.
It
seems we lost a lot of Hollywood and musical celebrities, including: Florence Henderson, Prince, David Bowie, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Alan Hickman, Natalie Cole, George Michael, Abe
Vigoda, Zsa Zsa Gabor, George Kennedy, Gary Shandling, Patty Duke and Merle
Haggard. The sports world lost Gordie
Howe, Muhammad Ali, Joe Garagiola, Monte Irvin, Jose Fernandez, and Arnold Palmer. But the literary world took a hit with the
losses of:
·
Harper
Lee – Pulitzer Prize-winning best-selling author, To Kill a Mockingbird
·
Pat
Conroy – best-selling author with books – turned movies The Great Santini and The Prince
of Tides
·
Elie
Wiesel – Nobel Peace Prize-winning author of 57 books
·
James
A. McPhersonn – first Black writer to win the Pulitzer Prize
·
Gloria
Naylor – National Book Award-winner for The
Women of Brewster Place
·
Leonard
Cohen – great musician was also a poet and novelist
·
Richard
Adams – author of best-selling children’s classic Watership Down; has won Britain’s most prestigious children’s book
awards
How
should we honor these writers?
·
Read
their books
·
Share
them with others
·
Keep
their words alive
·
Live
out their ideals
·
Write
about them
·
Dedicate
your writings to them
·
Borrow
from their writing styles
Great
writers come and go all of the time. If an author can be talked about by the
generation after their death, that’s an accomplishment. Few authors get read or discussed a century
after their expiration date.
2016
not only marks the loss of writers, but of those involved in the making,
marketing, and selling of books. There
are no lists to capture great book editors, excellent book marketers, bookshop
owners, or terrific librarians or English school teachers. But I have no doubt we lost hundreds or thousands
of them in 2016. Let’s honor them as
well.
This
past year we also have lost things- books were banned, some were denied access
to reading what others can read freely, and some writers were threatened by
others if they dared publish their truths, ideas, and experiences. We lost out on a full, free exchange of writing, and for that we should mourn 2016.
There
were bookstores that closed their doors this year. There were publishers that went bankrupt or
got consumed in a merger. There were
literary agents who retired or died.
There were book reviewers who got axed because of cutbacks at their
publications. There were cuts to the
number of print pages covering books. Some publications even folded. Let us reflect on these losses as well.
There
were manuscripts lost to fire, theft, moving and accidents. There were digital files hacked, lost or
destroyed that could’ve been published. There were libraries that closed or had
fires. There were valuable or rare books
that got stolen, lost, or damaged. Let
us think of what is no more.
But
so much was gained in 2016 – new authors got published for the first time,
great books got recognized by critics or awards, some amazing books became
best-sellers, book sales were solid and more bookstores opened than closed. New readers came to be, and the battle against
censorship, illiteracy, and cutbacks in funding for the arts were waged with
some successes.
Yes, in the book world 2016, like all other years and in all of life, tallied up wins and losses. Let’s honor the successes, learn
from the failures, and seek out great things for 2017!
All-New 2017 Book Marketing
& PR Toolkit
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