The Open Road Blog

We won’t be the first to say it, but it has been a tough week for admirers of children’s literature. Last week we were saddened by the passing of Maurice Sendak, and today we mourn Open Road author Jean Craighead George, who died yesterday at age ninety-two.

Jean grew up in a family of naturalists, and raised her own children to care about the environment as much as she did. She spent a lifetime camping, hiking, and immersing herself in the outdoors. She loved children, loved wildlife—and loved telling stories about animals to children. In over 100 children’s books, such as ...

In his 1933 novel Lost Horizon, British author James Hilton introduces readers to an exotic place called Shangri-La, a peaceful lamasery hidden in the Himalayas. Hilton’s inspirations for this mystical, imaginary place were the National Geographic articles about China and Tibet written by explorer Joseph Rock, and books Hilton found in the British Library that detailed faraway lands. During a time of great American exploration abroad, Hilton’s notions of the Far East captured the imaginations of millions of readers. The dazzling sights he described still inspire travelers to seek out this extraordinary region:

It was, indeed, a strange and half-incredible ...

For today's National Short Story Month feature, Open Road celebrates Edna O'Brien, an award-winning Irish author of novels, plays, and short stories. She has been hailed as one of the greatest chroniclers of the female experience in the twentieth century, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review has described her as "a storyteller, an Irish storyteller, one of an ancient traditions of storytellers, people who tell the truth."

O'Brien is the 2011 recipient of the Frank O’Connor Prize, awarded for her short story collection Saints and Sinners. She has also received, among other honors, the Irish PEN ...

“Corbett writes with an intensity of feeling. . . . Without compromising the stark realism of his bruising style.” —New York Times Book Review

Open Road Media announces the ebook publication of three gripping fiction titles by David Corbett, to be released on May 15, 2012. Drawing on his past experience as a private detective, Corbett spins award-winning tales of crime and redemption.

Corbett’s highly praised debut, The Devil’s Redhead, tells the story of Dan, a talented photographer and marijuana smuggler. He and his girlfriend, Shel, plot one final score—but Dan lands in jail, taking the fall for ...

With Foreward By George Clooney And “Lost Photos” Of The Cast At Work And Play Newly Discovered In The Universal Studios Vault

(NEW YORK, NY, May 14th) Jane Friedman, Co-Founder and CEO of Open Road Integrated Media (www.openroadmedia.com), announced today that it will release Kirk Douglas’ 10^th book and his first E-riginal, I Am Spartacus! Making a Film, Breaking the Blacklist, with Foreword by George Clooney on June 12, 2012. The title ...

We're spotlighting archival photos a day early this week in honor of Mother's Day!

Check out two new slideshows featuring gorgeous archival snapshots of authors with their mothers—and, in the case of authors who are mothers, authors with their children! Have a look:

Mother's Day is tomorrow!

In celebration of this special day, we invite you to read "A Visit with My Grandmother" from memoirist Joyce Maynard's essay collection, Domestic Affairs.

Witty and insightful, Domestic Affairs is an extension of Joyce Maynard’s celebrated, widely syndicated newspaper column of the same name that ran from 1984 to 1990. Each essay gives an unfiltered look at the ups and downs of family life and a remarkable window into the challenges of modern motherhood. Topics range from babysitter woes to family visits to coping with a child’s burgeoning independence. These collected writings represent nine years’ ...

Today’s featured excerpt comes from Out of My Later Years by Albert Einstein. Out of My Later Years is a deeply personal work from one of the most brilliant minds in history. In this inspiring essay collection, Einstein addresses the topics that fascinated him as a Nobel Prize–winning theoretical physicist, philosopher, and humanitarian. In the excerpt below, Einstein describes the emotional conflict he feels as a physicist—involved in a scientific discipline that made weapons of mass destruction possible—and as a German Jewish émigré in America witnessing the effects of World War II on his people.

Read a sample of Einstein’s ...

Jewish American Heritage Month celebrates "generations of Jewish Americans who have helped form the fabric of American history, culture and society." It’s supported by the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration (from which the image at left came), the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Gallery of Art, the National Park Service, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Open Road is proud to participate in the tribute by offering new videos, essays, and excerpts on Fridays throughout the month of May. Join us on Twitter by using the hashtag #JAHM.

As our first contribution, ...

Bel Kaufman—the acclaimed, bestselling author of Up the Down Staircase—turns 101 today. Happy birthday, Bel—we can't wait to publish your ebooks!

May is National Short Story Month and to celebrate, Open Road Integrated Media is sharing short stories by famous authors all month long on our blog. Be sure to share what you think on Twitter using the National Short Story Month Hashtag: #storymonth12

Check out all of our short stories here.

“Anybody settling down with a Garfield book is in for a good time.” —The New York Times

Brian Garfield, a widely acclaimed master of thriller writing, is the Edgar Award–winning author of over seventy novels. Described by Newsday as “a scintillating, talented writer,” Garfield has sold more ...

Gertrude Chandler Warner is best known as the author of children’s book series The Boxcar Children. But before she became famous for her writing, Warner was beloved in her community as an elementary school teacher. Two of her former first-grade students, Loise Pempek and Sandra Cutler Ames, now teachers in their own right, share their memories of the inspiring teacher they had in first grade.

It is often said of the best teachers, “It is not what they taught you that you remember, but how they ...

Open Road Media announces the publication of seventeen titles, across three series, from one of the founding members of Sisters in Crime, Susan Dunlap.  All seventeen titles are available for the first time as digital editions and ready for immediate download to all devices.

Susan Dunlap was a social worker with a masters degree in education before an Agatha Christie novel [and a challenge from her husband] inspired her to try her hand at writing mysteries.  Six attempts and six years later, she published Karma, which began a ten-books series about brash Berkeley cop, Jill Smith—and now Open Road ...

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, we are featuring Pat Conroy's 1964 semester report card from the Citadel. His only A was in comparative literature—a grade that foreshadowed his considerable skill as an author.

Pat Conroy is one of America’s most acclaimed and widely read authors and the New York Times bestselling writer of ten novels and memoirs, including The Water Is Wide, The Lords of Discipline, The Great Santini, The Prince of Tides, and South of Broad.

Conroy was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Growing up as the first of seven children in ...

"I feel I belong to a tribe of writers . . . it's a tribe I love." —Rafael Yglesias

Today marks the release of Helen Yglesias's The Girls, a poignant and very funny story about the last American taboos: old age and dying.

Open Road is honored to be publishing The Girls with Delphinium Books. This release represents our first parent-child author pair—Helen Yglesias and Rafael Yglesias—as Mother's Day approaches. Watch Rafael Yglesias speak about his mother in the video below, and then read on to learn more about Helen Yglesias's final, semi-autobiographical novel.

These days the ...