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September 10, 2008, 7 PM: David Hill will be reading from his book of poems, Consumed, at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore, 7700 NE 4th Plain Blvd, Vancouver, WA.

Bonny Belgum will be reading from her book of humorous essays, Bonny's America: Cut the Woman Some Slacks, on the following dates:

September 25, 2008, 7 PM: At the Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, 4755 Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55407. 612-821-9630. October 2, 2008, 6:30 PM: At Bookcase of Wyzata, 607 Lake St. E, Wayzata, MN.

Daniel Skach-Mills will be reading from his book of poems, The Tao of Now, on the following dates:

September 26, 2008, 7-9 PM. Healing Waters/Sacred Spaces, 2426 NE Broadway, Portland, Oregon. (Meditation, dharma talk, and poetry reading; $25.00 cost. Call 503-528-1430 for details.) September 30, 2008, 7 PM: Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway, Portland, Oregon. October 3, 2008, 7 PM: Reading, First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th Ave., Portland, Oregon. October 4, 2008, 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM, with break for lunch: The Tao of Now: Putting It into Practice. Workshop lead by Daniel Skach-Mills, First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th Ave., Portland. Call 503-228-6389 for details.

Over 70 of Portland's "glitterati" attended the launch of KenArnoldBooks at the Heathman Hotel March 3. Click here to see photos on our photographer's website (in 3 galleries: The Authors, The Party, The Signing). Thanks to everyone who joined us, in body and in spirit. (Sample above: Malcolm Boyd and his partner Mark Thompson (to the left), and High Hat [aka A. Pope, Private Eye] with his creator, Greg Mandel, to the right.)

Press Releases

PORTLAND’S KENARNOLDBOOKS LANDS THREE INDIE BOOK AWARDS

May 27, 2008: The Next Generation Indie Book Awards has selected KenArnoldBooks author Robert Wexelblatt, author of Zublinka Among Women, as the Grand Prize Winner in Fiction for 2008. Two other books from the Portland, Oregon, publisher are Finalists in the categories of Humor and Spirituality: High Hat, by Greg Mandel, The Oregonian’s “Edge” columnist; and Circle of the Way, by publisher Ken Arnold. Given annually, the Indie Awards honors the entrepreneurial spirit in publishing.

From thousands of books submitted in Fiction and Nonfiction, Wexelblatt’s Zublinka Among Women is the Grand Prize winner for Fiction. The Indie includes a cash prize.

Professor Wexelblatt teaches at Boston University. Author of two collections of short stories, he publishes extensively in U.S. literary journals. The New York Times Book Review described his stories as “loaded with wit, bristling irony, draped in erudition, and studded with metaphysics.” Zublinka Among Women is his first novel.

High Hat is Greg Mandel’s first novel, featuring a Pope who moonlights as a private eye in a hilarious send-up of the hard-boiled detective novel. Circle of the Way is the third book in spirituality by Ken Arnold, an award-winning playwright and poet, who is also the founder of KenArnoldBooks.

Ken Arnold said that “recognition for three of the first four books from our new imprint is a great honor for us and for our authors. Robert Wexelblatt is a brilliant writer whose work has long been admired. This Indie Award for Zublinka Among Women gives him the public recognition he deserves. And Greg Mandel is the funniest brain in Portland.”

Malcolm Boyd, author of Samuel Joseph for President, the fourth book published by KAB in its first list of titles, is also being honored with a Pioneer Award for lifetime achievement by the Lambda Literary Foundation May 29 in Los Angeles.

“It’s been a good year,” Arnold said, “and it’s only May.”

For a complete list of Indie winners and finalists visit: http://www.indiebookawards.com/2008_winners_and_finalists.php.

NEW PUBLISHER EMBRACES DIGITAL PRINTING DESPITE INDUSTRY PREJUDICE

PORTLAND, OR, APRIL 10, 2008: When Kenneth Arnold, a veteran of forty years in the book industry, formed KenArnoldBooks, LLC in January of this year, the company's print-on-demand model challenged the publishing industry's wasteful ways of doing business by printing its books digitally and selling primarily through Amazon.com and Lightning Source.

Arnold is now raising questions about the arbitrary exclusion from some review media of legitimate publishers, such as KenArnoldBooks, that print books digitally. See his recent blog, "The POD People Are Coming! Shoot Them!" KenArnoldBooks offers standard royalty contracts; it does NOT accept subsidies from its authors.

The publisher's production model has been the subject of recent commentary in The Oregonian (online edition) and in Robert Gray's weekly column on Shelf Awareness.

"We will not be selling our books primarily through the big distributors, such as Ingram and Baker & Taylor--although our books will soon be on their databases for stores and libraries that wish to order from them," Arnold said. "We offer favorable terms to booksellers; we are cultivating a network of independent partner stores in the Pacific Northwest and wherever our authors live. Our digital-print model is environmentally progressive and economically smart: we do not waste paper on printed books stored in a climate-controlled warehouse. The waste in the publishing industry is, frankly, appalling."

The company's list reflects the publisher's interests in fiction, poetry, spirituality, environmentalism, contemporary culture, political satire, and humor. Its authors are well published as well as promising first-timers.

KenArnoldBooks expects to publish 10 new titles in 2008. Four books currently available are listed on the company's website. For a list of forthcoming titles, go to this link.

Kenneth Arnold, former publisher for Church Publishing Inc., the book publishing company for the Episcopal Church, is a veteran of university publishing and author of books in spirituality. He is an award-winning playwright and poet. His wife Connie Kirk, a writer of poetry, essays, and children's fiction, is the company's marketing director. A graduate of New York University's Department of Media, Culture, and Communications, she studied under the late Neil Postman.