City 'Indie' Publisher Up for Award

Peter E. Randall Publisher of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has received one of three nominations for this year’s Benjamin Franklin Award™ for Popular Fiction. Named in honor of America’s original “indie” publisher, the Benjamin Franklin Awards™ are presented by the Independent Book Publishers Association (http://www.pma-online.org/) to recognize excellence in independent publishing.

The nomination was given for Revival: A Folk Music Novel, the debut novel by Scott Alarik, who covered folk music in the Boston Globe for over 20 years. Revival is also the debut novel for Songsmith, a new Peter E. Randall Publisher imprint focusing on “folk music in book form,” as the imprint is described on their website (http://www.perpublisher.com/songsmith.html).

Folk legend Pete Seeger calls Alarik “one of the best writers in America,” and the nomination is proof positive of the high quality of his writing, based in the folk music scene he so intimately knows. Alarik’s novel tells the intertwining stories of Nathan Warren, a “secretly famous” star of the folk underground who missed his shot at the big time, and Kit Palmer, a rising star with the potential to break onto the national stage or to repeat Warren’s mistakes. Alarik’s telling of their love story, mutual aid, and struggle is interspersed with anecdotal gems and insights into the folk scene that he gleaned from decades as a folk music reviewer and archivist.

The 2012 Benjamin Franklin Award™ winner will be announced and awarded during a ceremony on Monday, June 4, 2012 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. The award ceremony is one of many events happening that work during BookExpo America (http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/), the publishing industry’s largest annual event.

Additional information on Revival: A Folk Music Novel is available on the websites of the author (http://www.scottalarik.com/) and the publisher (http://www.perpublisher.com/per142.html).

Revival: A Folk Music Novel is 328 pages, softcover, ISBN: 978-1-931807-91-3 and retails for $22.00. The ebook version retails for $9.99. It is available through all major wholesalers and all major online retailers. It is published by Songsmith, a new imprint of Peter E. Randall Publisher.

Submitted by Zachariah Johnson on behalf of Peter E. Randall Publisher